Cold Smithing
by Jester Seraph
Summary: Dust knows why she took the course—something to do with it being "good to know how to repair your own weapon," as if she didn't have the funds and manpower to have people fix it for her—but now the only thing, the only one, standing between Weiss Schnee and a failing grade in Rudimentary Machine Shop was her red-headed dolt of a partner.
1. Chapter 1 — In Which Ruby is Stubborn

**Foreword: Hello reader! First of all, welcome to Cold Smithing. I'm not much of one for author's notes before a chapter begins, but I felt this was important enough to mention before you begin reading. This story takes place in an alternate timeline, in which the Vytal festival doesn't trigger the fall of Beacon and team RWBY continues into its second year. This means a lot of volume 3 is scrapped, and most of the source material pulled from is volumes 1 & 2\. At inception, Cold Smithing was meant to take place during volume 2, and be interwoven with canon, but this changed as it felt too limiting to the direction I wanted to go with the plot.**

 **But that information isn't important. You're here for a story, after all! Details of what happened in this timeline will be dispersed throughout the story, but they aren't particularly important.**

 **Now then, I hope you enjoy!**

* * *

 **Chapter 1 — In Which Ruby is Stubborn**

Beacon Academy; a school with a rich diversity of teachings ranging from fine arts to mathematics, carpentry to literature, and even culinary to wilderness survival. The most important facet though, and the reason it was so heralded worldwide, was because of its intensive combat training, preparing generations of hunters and huntresses to defend the world of Remnant from the horrors of the Grimm.

No matter the subject a student specialized in, lessons always managed to find a way back to being about hunting; whether it be poisoned cakes, calculations of projectiles, or forging flares from scrap materials of a fallen Bullhead airship, every teaching had an application to survival. Students, from their first year until their last, were sent on missions as hunters and huntresses-in-training. They were the elites, privileged with the knowledge of some of the greatest minds as their professors.

So to be lectured on the _importance_ of 'weapon maintenance' for the entire duration of the ride back from the latest mission was unappealing to a certain Schnee, who stood gritting her teeth during the landing of their Bullhead transport. The week-long mission during her post-semester break didn't help her tolerance of trivial matters.

"I'm not saying you have to be able to build Atlesian Knights, Weiss! It'd just be useful if you could repair your own weapon." The red-headed leader of Team RWBY—Ruby Rose—said. She then followed it with a quiet mumble, "then I wouldn't be stuck with it all the time."

Weiss' eyebrow twitched, having had enough of the scolding from her younger superior. The pristine girl placed a palm against the butt of her Myrtenaster as she turned back to face Ruby on the exit ramp, fury in her eyes.

"And _I_ told _you_ that it would be a waste of my time and resources! I'm a Schnee, Ruby! That means I have an army of the best engineers money can buy at my beck and call. I have more important studies to focus on than some day labourer's tasks!"

Weiss huffed, drawing her shoulders back into her typical, perfect posture. Ruby looked completely downcast at her last retort. She would have continued her backlash, but as Weiss watched the fight drain out of Ruby's face, replaced with a slight wetness at the corner of her eyes, the white girl sealed her mouth shut.

Yellow hair caught the two's attention as their teammate Yang placed a hand on her downtrodden sister's shoulder.

"Come on, Weiss. You know how hard Ruby works on her projects."

"Oh, her tinkering?" _Good going, Weiss. Put more red dust on the flame, why don't you?_ The Schnee winced internally, unable to stop her mouth from continuing. "I hardly think playing around with some scrap metal and bolts is hard work."

The final member of their team, a raven-haired Blake Belladonna, sided with the sisters as she joined them at the bottom of the exit ramp, breaking her own silence to toss in two cents. "I think it might be helpful if you learned how to pick up a tool or two, Weiss. Ruby already does all of our weapon repairs; another hand might really help free up her time."

"Then why don't you volunteer, Blake-y?" Yang said across Ruby, causing the faunus girl to bury her face back into the book in her hand, boredom laced into her tone.

"Lookouts aren't exactly known for making noise."

"Exactly!" The redhead burst upwards from under her teammates, face filled with determination again. "Blake can't do the repairs, and Yang wouldn't pay enough attention in class—"

"Hey!"

"So that only leaves you, Weiss. Will you _please_ take the course with me?"

"Rudimentary Mechanics One?" Weiss blinked, looking at the piece of paper that her leader pulled from _somewhere_ and held up to the heiress' face.

"Yeah! You still have an open elective for next semester, so you can take it with me!"

"And what of Yang and Blake?" Weiss tried deflecting, but her partner's view didn't so much as waver as she waited for a response.

"Sorry, Ice Queen, but Blake and I got into Professor Peach's special culinary class. Partners only." Yang grinned cheekily, stepping back from the rest of the group and walking away from the landing pad. "I'm gonna get a head start to Ozpin's. catch you all later."

"I think I'll go with Yang. Make sure she doesn't get into trouble." Blake said with a small smile towards Ruby, heading off after her buxom partner.

Weiss sighed, the rest of her team successfully cornering and abandoning her with the young girl still holding up the sheet of paper. "Ruby, I—"

"What if your weapon breaks in combat, Weiss?"

"Excuse me?"

"In combat. What if Myrtenaster's dust canisters jam, or lock again? I won't always be there to protect you."

"I—" Weiss bit her lip, unable to think of a retort. _She's… right._ Frustration continued to bubble up. _Come on, Schnee. Be the best teammate._ "I'm sorry Ruby, but I said I don't have the ti—"

"Time? You have a full slot, and I _know_ you don't have any plans for it. Course selection's been open for three weeks now."

"What!?" Weiss took a step closer, glaring down her teammate with all the hatred she could muster. This was a step too far, criminal even. What if Ruby had been looking through her scroll and found sensitive information from the Schnee Dust Company instead of the hole in her timetable? _Or worse?_ With a quick look around, it seemed no one was paying the two any attention on the landing pad. The few students waiting for lifts milled about, while others looking to get some fresh air and a nice view of Vale lounged about. turning back to Ruby, she lowered her voice a few decibels.

"How did you know about that open slot?"

"I... might have... maybe... sort of... peeked over the bed when you were filling it out before the mission?"

Ruby flinched at the sound of grinding teeth, and smartly held her tongue from going any further, watching her partner's snow-white skin turn red, until finally—

"Fine!" Weiss shouted. "I'll take the stupid robotics course!"

"Mechanics…"

"Whatever!"

Weiss crossed her arms, chin held high as she spun on her heel to start walking towards the school. When she didn't hear the sound of combat boots hitting the ground behind her, the heiress sighed. It was no secret that despite Ruby's position as leader, Weiss still managed to rule the quirky girl's every move. She denied it, of course, but cases like these didn't help her point. Ruby stood still where the Bullhead dropped them off, waiting for Weiss' permission to move. She wasn't about to incite the Schnee's wrath again.

It brought a frown to the girl's hidden face.

"Come on, Ruby. You're going to be late for debriefing _again._ "

"Right! Coming!" Ruby singsonged as she caught up to her partner, things returning to their comfortable norm. They made it a few steps in silence before Ruby opened her mouth again.

"And Weiss... thanks. I didn't want to take it alone."

"Don't mention it. Seriously, _Don't._ "

* * *

"And then after we found the artifact, a goliath noticed us, so we had to fall back to the extraction point." Ruby spoke, feet swinging from her chair in front of Professor Ozpin's desk. The rest of her team was sat beside her, Weiss on the right, Blake and Yang on the left.

A sip filled the air, the sound echoing off the walls as the clock tower continued ticking. It was always an off-putting feeling, sitting in this room. The sounds of the mechanisms were more oppressing than any silence ever dared to be. And the man in his green suit, cane leaned against the side of his desk of gears and glass, was made no less intimidating by the mug he held to his lips. Ruby continued to fidget, waiting for the response to her debrief, while Yang twirled a lock of her hair and Weiss sat ramrod straight. something about a room with glass walls, ceiling, and floor, was frightfully unusual, and always kept its guests stepping as carefully as they could; lest they shatter the very beacon of Beacon.

"A goliath in the midst of Forever Fall? This is certainly concerning. Thank you Ruby, girls, for discovering this, and I'm glad you all got out safely." Ozpin set down his steaming mug, gaze sweeping over the team before him. "Is there anything else that happened?"

The four girls all sat silent, expecting the meeting to be over, until Ruby jumped in her seat, remembering a singular fact.

"Oh! Weiss broke her weapon during our run to the extraction point, fending off a rogue beowolf, but it's fine, I fixed it on the ride back."

"Did she now? And why were you the one to fix it?" Ozpin questioned, his eyes set on Weiss instead of the team leader.

"Weiss doesn't know how to repair weapons, sir."

The heiress' eyebrow twitched, set off by the quiet snickering from a certain blonde down the line. She didn't dare glare at Ozpin, instead trying to burn a hole through the top of his desk.

Ozpin just continued his stare, though Weiss could swear she saw the corner of his lips turn upwards as he spoke. "Well, perhaps she would consider taking a class on it? Beacon is providing a course this semester called Rud—"

"Rudimentary Mechanics One, yeah! She's going to take it with me."

There was a beat of silence, before all hell broke loose. Yang slapped her knee and bent over laughing as Blake slipped her partner five lien, muttering under her breath about some bet and then whispering into Yang's ear. Weiss' voice became a screech as her eyes widened, turning and beginning to rant at her Leader, who in return sputtered out as many apologies as she could.

"What part of _Don't_ don't you understand!? You, you insufferable little—"

Ozpin cleared his throat loudly, cutting off the four. They all sat, faces red for various reasons.

"Well then, if that's settled, you girls are dismissed. There won't be any more missions until the students are settled into the new semester, so enjoy your short break. I look forward to seeing you and Miss Rose in my class, Miss Schnee."

"Of course, sir." Weiss replied, bowing slightly as her mind raced. _Ozpin is teaching mechanotics? Great. Just great! Look what you've done now, Schnee!_

The four girls stood, moving to leave the office. As they began moving forward, Blake and Yang cut between the white and red duo, keeping Weiss from returning to her tirade. The heiress let out a "hmph," arms crossing as her skin slowly changed back to its natural tone. Yang and Ruby fell into a comfortable conversation, thoughts wandering away from the events of the mission, and towards ideas of what to spend their bounty on. The miscreant was blathering on about new parts of sorts for her weapon, while Yang nodded along and made a mention of her own desires here and there—mostly about a new hair product line her friend Coco had mentioned.

Not that Weiss was eavesdropping intentionally. No, her own companion was as silent as a cat, her feet not making a sound as her heels struck the ground. Weiss', on the other hand, clacked loudly down the hall, her semi-stomps a warning for anyone who may have gotten in their way as they returned to the dorms.

"You know, Weiss, you didn't have to take the course."

The Schnee in question turned to Blake, a moment of confusion overtaking her face before turning into a frown. With how often she scowled these days, the young heiress was sure she'd end up a wrinkled prune by her thirties.

"I didn't have a choice in the matter; you know how she gets." Weiss lazily gestured a hand in the direction of their red leader, who was currently waving her arms animatedly while practically yelling about the latest breakthrough in hyper-sensitive aura-reactive metals. "Had I continued to refuse, I'd lose hearing in my ears from her stubbornness."

Blake let out a small chuckle, the monotone girl's laugh a velvety smooth symphony on the ears. "Now now, she's not that bad. She would have given up… eventually."

"I doubt it." Weiss said, cutting herself off with a yawn. She covered her mouth as it widened, trying to stifle the action. Their dorm room was only a little further, and after a week in the field they could all use a good rest. An early night, and a late Saturday morning, was just what the doctor ordered for the four girls.

Though Weiss was incredibly tired, Yang was doing all she could to keep up with her sister, and upon closer inspection Blake sported bags under her own yellow eyes, Ruby seemed to have the energy to take on a Nevermore still. The white-haired girl groaned internally, worried that their fearless leader would decide it was time for _bonding activities_ instead of sleep.

 _Oh I'll bond all right, bond directly with my pillow._

With a swipe of her scroll, Weiss opened the door and walked in first, closely followed by the rest of team RWBY. As soon as the door was shut the four girls, Ruby thankfully included, stripped down and changed into their pajamas, Yang heading into the shower first before the others could complain about how long she'd be.

Blake was the first to notice, and let out a quiet huff at her partner as she grabbed a book to read while she waited. Ruby merely ignored the bathroom, opting instead for her sheet fortress hanging from the ceiling. Weiss decided on the same, figuring she could just wash up in the morning and burn her contaminated covers later.

When her head hit the pillow, the snow-themed teenager felt bliss begin to envelop her. The smooth caress of blankets and the comfort of her semi-isolation wrapping around her body like a mother's arms. No fear of Grimm attacks, no lookout shift in four hours, just pure, unadulterated sleep—

" _Pssst. Weiss!"_

She ignored the voice of her leader, eyes glued shut as her brows knit out of their peaceful positions.

" _Weiiiisssss!"_ Her leader whisper-yelled again, sounding eerily close to her head.

Weiss gave in, cracking one eye open to find a silver orb staring back, Ruby hanging upside down from her bunk. She didn't bother speaking, not trusting herself to be capable of holding back the venom in her voice. Rather, she waited for the smiling girl to continue whatever it was she felt the need to bother the heiress with.

" _Thanks for agreeing to take mechanics with me. You won't regret it, I promise!"_

The leader's teeth shined between her lips as her grin split her face, her eyes sparkling. She looked so genuinely happy, that Weiss didn't even notice when her own lips turned up. Her leader did though, and it only fuelled her joy further.

Once Weiss realized why Ruby was letting out a soft giggle, she immediately returned her face to her neutral scowl out of instinct, the barest hints of red dusting her cheeks.

"Don't make promises you can't keep." Weiss replied, slightly amused tone betraying her mask. Ruby merely gave a thumbs up before pulling herself back up into her fort.

" _Good night, partner."_

"... Good night, Ruby."

* * *

 **A/N: Hey there reader! Thanks for reading to this point. Honestly, I'm unused to putting author notes after chapters too. Novels don't really have footnotes all that often, but I digress! This is my first time stepping outside or original works and into fan fiction, so hopefully I don't fall on my face** _ **too**_ **much. Sadly I can't promise consistent updates, since my life isn't all that user friendly at the moment, but fingers crossed, right?**

 **If you have any, all feedback is appreciated.**

 _ **Notes:**_

 _ **20/01/2016 - Revised to correct a couple missing pieces of information on setting, align Blake's dialogue more with her personality and known traits, and did minor lexical touch ups.**_

 _ **17/03/2016 -**_ _ **Fixed 'timestable' to 'timetable' and 'ruby' to 'Ruby.'**_

 _ **02/06/2016 - Standardized date format in notes to DD/MM/YYYY, and altered an instance of American spelling to Canadian.**_

 _ **30/03/2017 - Added a foreword talking about timeline position, and adjusted the author's note slightly accordingly.**_


	2. Chapter 2 — In Which Ruby is Ecstatic

**Chapter 2 — In Which Ruby is Ecstatic**

Weiss' sharp, blue eyes scanned across the swath of text, mentally taking notes of any slightly important facts hidden within her heavy textbook while her hand wrote more prominent information on the sheets of paper beside her. Saturday was a lost cause, just getting out of bed a nearly impossible feat for any of the members of team RWBY, but the heiress would be damned if she lost Sunday too.

Tomorrow was the start of the new semester, so after Weiss finished her course selection with Professor Goodwitch, she took a detour through the library to pick up the necessary readings for all her classes. Now back in her dorm, the girl diligently read through the first few chapters of her new collection in preparation for classes.

Closing her history book, Weiss placed it in the 'finished' pile, reaching over to the stack of what still needed reading. Upon seeing the cover of _Engineering 101_ though, her neutral face turned disdainful. She slid it off the top of the others, letting it fall onto her bed beside them before grabbing the text that was under it, _Advanced Dust Usage._

She slid her finger over the words written on the first page, ' _published by the Schnee Dust Company.'_

 _Slam!_

Weiss flinched at the sudden sound, shoulders hunching up defensively.

"And then he said, 'I'm not sure if I can sell such heavy parts to a little gir—Oh, hi Weiss!" Ruby spoke as she kicked open the door, face mostly hidden behind a large paper bag held in both her hands. Yang walked in behind the girl, a much smaller bag in one of her hands.

"Ruby," Weiss hissed, "how many times do I have to tell you not to slam the door?" She was rubbing one hand against her temple, a vain attempt to regain her relaxed state of the past. It was no use.

"Sorry! Sorry. Are you okay?"

"Just _fine,_ thanks."

It was Ruby's turn to flinch, however subtle, before awkwardly shuffling to the side of her shared bunk bed with the heiress. As quietly as clattering metal could be, Ruby hefted her goods up onto her own blanket fort, scrambling up shortly after. The entrance was closed to the sound of giddy giggling, before a temporary silence took over.

"So, where's Blake?" Only to be quickly overthrown by the buxom blonde, Yang. Weiss let out an exhausted sigh, not even a page deeper into her text. _I'm not really sure._ "How should I know? She was gone when I left."

Weiss lips marred into a frown, only half paying attention to Yang's response. _Smooth, Schnee. Real smooth. You're earning friend of the year with that one._

"—Guess I'll leave you be, then. Bye Rubes!"

The redhead's face popped out from between her curtain doorway long enough for a quick reply, before darting back into her isolating canopy.

The page in Weiss' hand turned to the sound of the Yang closing the door—carefully—behind her. The fresh scent of new books was wafting up, beckoning to the icy girl. It promised a paradise of distraction-less knowledge, free from the nuisances of the outside world. It was a joy that Weiss shared with her teammate Blake, getting lost in text, and although their preferences towards fiction versus nonfiction was apparent, they still drew the same pleasure.

But before she realized, the first four chapters had flashed by, and the pages to her left, previously blank, were covered from corner to corner with notes. She took a breath, accepting the end of her dust studies for the day and reaching for the next class' textbook. Though when she didn't find it, her hand began to pat around the bed before finally coming to rest on a single book.

Weiss groaned, unwilling to waste her time on the barbaric practice the text taught. Though she excelled at mathematics, physics, and chemistry, the acts of getting covered in oil and hitting things with a hammer were of no interest to the pristine girl. She was a Schnee, for heaven's sake! Did the most fabled of warriors craft their own equipment? No, of course not! They hired the best blacksmiths to do it for them!

Above her, the master tinkerer began her ministrations. A muffled symphony of clatter jingling emanated around the room. Weiss' knuckles turned white around her textbook, teeth grinding against each other with enough force to whittle away her own aura.

 _Calm yourself, Schnee. It's her hobby. She's allowed to have fun on off-days._ With deep, practiced breaths, the heiress leveled her emotions, listening to her mental pep talk through the cacophony of noise.

 _Soon enough, you'll be doing it too. You agreed to this, Schnee._

* * *

Weiss drifted through a black void, the substance sticky as it wrapped about her entire body. Panicking, she thrashed her limbs in a vain attempt to escape the feeling.

It didn't fight back though. It was around her no matter how she shifted, and no movement provided relief.

She was stuck.

Her eyes were shut closed, afraid they would get defiled by the void around her as well, but when it began to flow around her—no, when she began to flow through it—light shined against her eyelids. The feeling was soothing, beckoning to her. It was an unspoken promise to leave her unharmed if she desired to look.

And so she did. Her vision was immediately met with the many slow-moving windows, sliced out of the void and looking out into memories. Each one contained a different moment in time, her teammates laughing, running, eating. It filled her with a warm feeling, watching them enjoy themselves, until one window passed by. Its edges were a darker tint, and Weiss recognized it as soon as the memory came into view.

"Unbelievable! This is exactly the kind of thing I was talking about!"

"I'm really, really sorry."

"You complete dolt! What are you even doing here!? Aren't you a little young to be attending Beacon?"

She watched in horror as she yelled at her read-headed leader, the girl standing with her fingers poking each other after just freshly exploding.

It wasn't the yelling, it wasn't the tone that scared Weiss. Her actions weren't what she watched; it was the face of her younger partner, lacking the usual chipper smile she always wore. It was scared, confused, angry, and all caused by the girl in white lording over her.

Turning away, Weiss saw another darker window speed past just in time to catch a view of herself yelling at Ruby again, stuck in the Emerald forest.

It was one after another, no matter which way Weiss turned. The sticky substance around her turned suffocating, slipping into her mouth and down her throat. Losing the ability to breath, Weiss tried screaming for help, drowning in her void. She was so close to passing out, so close to closing her eyes again.

* * *

Weiss bolted up into a sitting position, sucking in as much air as possible, until her forehead collided with a solid object in front of her.

"Oww…" A voice near the white-haired girl let out, her vision seeing red and black. Leaning over her bed was Ruby, a whistle hanging out of her mouth as she rubbed her own forehead. "I didn't blow it _that_ loud…"

"Ruby? What were—" Weiss started, stopping herself suddenly as her mind spoke out quite loudly.

 _Be the best teammate, Schnee._

The heiress swallowed, wetting her parched throat as she drew up all her strength. "Are you... okay?"

"Huh? Oh, yeah. I'm fine, I think? Thanks." Ruby smiled, talking around the silver whistle. Leaning back, she stood with her arms swaying, her whole body tensing and relaxing in excitement. "It's time to get up, Weiss. Today's our first day of classes!"

 _Oh joy,_ the young woman being addressed thought dryly, face deadpanning as she habitually checked her scroll to make sure their faithful leader hadn't woken them up five minutes before classes began. Though, 'them' may not have been appropriate, considering the bunk bed across from her was empty. The lower bunk neatly made while the bed above's sheets were a shoved-away mess, its yellow inhabitant and her partner missing.

Yawning, her dream slowly fading from memory, Weiss got out of bed and began her morning rituals. Shower, hair, teeth, uniform, concealer to make sure no one ever knew about the tiny red pimple forming under her chin, and she was ready to start the day.

It was going to be a long one, for sure. The professors all had an odd way of teaching, like an imitation of a school that's just slightly uncanny. Peter Port spent his entire lecture time telling stories, far more than Weiss' favourite tutor even had, while Glynda Goodwitch seemed as though she was from an era fifty years in the past, her educating cold and punishing. Even Doctor Bartholomew Oobleck took his history classes to a different level, running through facts with a speed that would make one assume he was about to die, and had to dump everything he knew on his students before it was too late. Or maybe he wasn't the one he worried about dying too soon.

Weiss chewed the egg in her mouth, her body moving automatically to the cafeteria with Ruby and getting breakfast as her mind wandered. Her partner beside her continued to chatter about her weekend excursion with Yang, the words falling on deaf ears.

"And then after she taught the guy a lesson, we—"

 _And what about Ozpin? I've never heard of him teaching a course before. Will he be like Port and tell stories all day, or talk incessantly like Oobleck? Maybe he'll be flippant like Professor Peach?_

"Hello? Remnant to Weiss, this is mission control speaking."

"Huh?" Weiss said, her attention drawn out of her head. She turned to her younger superior expectantly, finding the other girl was standing in front of a doorway. Now that she thought about it, the entire hallway seemed unfamiliar, the windows a little smaller and thicker than normal. The walls seemed to have a light coating of grime, and the ground was even cracked in areas.

And the smell, it was as though the very air had been burnt.

"Ugh, where are we?" Weiss scrunched up her face, disgusted by the filth around her. When her vision caught Ruby again, it was to find a look of disappointment on the red-themed girl as she stood in the now open doorway.

"This is the engineering department, Weiss, and it's not _that_ bad. C'mon, you agreed to this." The heiress' face blanched at Ruby's words. It was a full moment later that her pride returned to her, and Weiss took a step into the room silently, a smiling Ruby following behind her.

The state inside was worse than the hallways, and far below the standard Weiss had grown accustomed to all her life. Replaced were the benches of the lecture halls, the room a boring rectangle with old, wooden tables that had more scratches, dents, and holes in them than a veteran hunter. There weren't even chairs to sit at, instead expecting students to stand all class. Behind the standing area, there was a larger open space with various machines set up, blades and wheels of various sizes decorating what Weiss would have believed was a torture chamber if she didn't know any better. She did know better, right?

The Schnee looked at the innocent twinkle in Ruby's eyes, unsure of how sadistic her partner may have been behind those sheet-turned-curtains of her so-called 'Fort Rose.'

The only other notable objects in the large, boxy room, were the desk and chair at the front— _of course the professor gets to sit—_ and the large chalkboard spanning the entire wall, floor to ceiling. The professor, or headmaster in this case, was nowhere to be seen, while the rest of the room seemed to be filled with students idly chatting around the tables. Weiss could spot a few familiar faces, such as the resident bullies team CRDL, a couple other male students from her year, and surprisingly Velvet Scarlatina, standing off to the side alone. Most of the student body, however, were first years she hadn't met.

Walking toward the back, toward the only friendly face, Weiss watched as Ruby bolted past her to their faunus friend and senior.

"Velvet!" Ruby chirped, grabbing the bunny girl's attention. She looked up at the two of them approaching, face lighting up in recognition, before giving a friendly greeting.

"Hello Ruby, Weiss. What brings you here?"

"Oh, you know, mechanics course, weapon nerd, I kinda go hand-in-hand with this stuff." Velvet nodded knowingly, having been on the receiving end of her junior's questioning whenever her mystery box of a weapon was at her hip.

"And what about you, Weiss?"

"She's going to lear—" Ruby started before Weiss slapped her hand over her leader's mouth, quickly staring daggers into the girl's side before changing back to a polite smile for Velvet, speaking with practiced grace.

"I figured it would be a useful addition to my repertoire of skills." The heiress responded, standing an inch taller. Ruby gave a muffled sound before she was released, continuing the friendly conversation.

"What about you, Velvet? Why are you here?"

"Well, there's a couple new components I've been wanting to add to my weapon that I'm not sure how to, so hopefully this class can shed more light than Signal did." Velvet replied, Weiss maintaining her expression as Ruby asked yet again if she could see inside the box, to which the faunus shot her down as always.

Then the door clicked, and the room went silent as shoes and a cane tapped against the worn flooring. Headmaster Ozpin walked in slowly, wearing his telltale black suit over a green shirt and scarf, toward the center of the chalkboard.

He stood, brown eyes scanning the faces of the many students over his small spectacles, until he completed a full sweep and back. He then took a sip from the mug held in his hand, warm steam rising out of it.

"Today's lesson will be a short one." Ozpin stated, voice monotone as he carefully enunciated each syllable. "If you are taking this course to fill your time, to correct a mistake," Ozpin continued locking eyes with various students as he spoke, finally landing on Weiss, "or to try and improve yourself—then you should leave. You're merely wasting your time, and that of the students around yourself."

Murmuring began among those gathered in the room, some nervously glancing at one another while others just seemed confused. When Weiss looked to Ruby though, all she was was admiration, and she couldn't understand why.

Ozpin took another sip of his drink, waiting for the door to click closed again after a few of the students actually left.

"Knowledge is a valueless asset in the face of time. No matter how much you learn, it will never be enough to accomplish the goals you aim to achieve, and cannot saves those you are training to protect." The headmaster walked over to the desk, setting down his mug and picking up a piece of paper, before walking back to the chalkboard. With a white stick in hand, he began drawing for the class.

"Now then, this week's assignment is to create a switch box. Their purpose is to alter the signal sent through them depending on their current state, controlled by any means you wish—perhaps a button or a lever—and to transmit the new signal to the other side. To the back of the room, you'll find a pile of scrap metal and rolls of wiring. Using only them and the tools in here, you must forge the item. Information on the construction of the device can be found on pages seven to nineteen." Ozpin put down the chalk, walked back to his desk, leaned his cane against it, and sat down, watching the remaining students in the classroom—save for about ten—leave the room.

"Good luck, students." He said to Ruby, Velvet, Weiss, team CRDL, and the three other first years who remained.

* * *

 **A/N: Hello again, reader. Welcome to the end of chapter two, and thank you for reading to this point. I'm actually feeling a little conflicted about the current genres of Cold Smithing, specifically I'm not sure if I should classify it with humour as a second genre, or with angst. Although I have plans for the future, I don't know how much I'm going to harp on the more heavy themes that my rendition of Weiss is heart-set on dealing with.**

 **Any and all feedback is appreciated, or if you just want to comment on it, leave a review or send me a PM. I'm always happy to answer questions that aren't spoiler-y.**

 **Also if you find inconsistencies, mistakes, or things that just feel off, I beg of you to let me know. My tired eyes can only find so much, and I don't have a beta.**


	3. Chapter 3 — In Which Ruby is Proud

**Chapter 3 — In Which Ruby is Proud**

 _This can't be right._

Weiss leaned heavily on the table in front of her, fingers splayed out against the choppy wood. The other students began milling towards the back of the room to begin picking through the scrap metal, not wasting a second.

 _This can't be right at all._

"Weiss? Are you okay?" The heiress' partner asked from beside her, the only other person to stay by the tables.

"I'm fine." Weiss responded automatically, her mind continuing its monologue.

 _What was that speech even!? Knowledge is worthless? Trying to improve yourself is wrong? What the he—"_

"Are you sure? Because you've been standing here for five minutes."

She stood straight abruptly, turning around to face the scrap metal pile like the rest of the remaining students.

"Yes." Weiss responded. "I'm fine." Determination was beginning to fill the Schnee's veins, the same sensation which pushed her through every other challenge thrown her way. The same sensation she felt as she crushed her enemies. The same sensation as when she earned her scar.

 _To dust with Ozpin, Schnee. You're here for a reason._

Weiss walked to the back of the room, looking at the pile. It appeared as though the other students hadn't even dented the amount of metal available. Recalling what she read the previous evening, the white-haired girl picked through the heap in search for the perfectly sized rectangles to form her box.

Ruby joined her, pulling out a single, rather large slate, and nothing else. Upon noticing this, Weiss turned her head to get a better look. She hissed under her breath when she felt a sharp edge cut her finger, the warm blood welling into a drop on the fair girl's digit, before the sliced skin knitted itself back together with the help of her aura beneath.

"What are you doing, Ruby? The book says to make the box at most 6 inches by 4 inches by 3 inches."

The redhead let out a snort and a single 'ha' as she turned, the metal in her hands nearly hitting everything and everyone around. "I know that."

Believing the tinkerer was more than capable of figuring out her own mistake, Weiss set out to begin working on the switch box. She brought the diagrams and explanations from her textbook to the forefront of her mind, facts and instructions floating through her thoughts. Other students went about around her, drawing on pads of paper with archaic pencils, designs beginning. Some didn't even have their own books out, either recalling like the heiress was, or blatantly ignoring the instructions. This was going to be simple.

By the end of the hour, Weiss had finished soldering half of her box. Two walls attached to a base. She put down the handheld blowtorch she was using, a large red dust crystal contained by a cannister with a nozzle and trigger, and checked her coat sleeves one final time to ensure they remained untouched. Looking around for Ruby, Weiss took a step back to find her leader sitting on the floor, half under her own table, with a pair of pliers and a small metal object in her hands, delicately working away.

"You know, we're supposed to be making boxes."

The younger girl continued working, tongue poking out of her mouth.

"Ruby?" Weiss tried again.

"Got it!" the girl yelled in triumph, followed by a loud _thunk_ as her head hit the wood she was under. Weiss spared a glance at her own box to make sure it wasn't knocked over by the force, before rolling her eyes.

"What did you get?"

Ruby stood up, rubbing the back of her head with one hand as she displayed her masterpiece to her partner. It was a marvel of metal; smooth curves, rounded edges, a slight indentation for a finger to rest in, and most incredible of all, Ruby's rose emblem pressed into the center. Weiss stared at the tiny device incredulously, eyes drinking in every tiny detail.

"I got my button finished!"

"You spent the whole class… on the button?" Weiss deadpanned, all wonder immediately draining out of her face. "How do you plan on finishing this by Friday?"

"I'll get it done, _mom._ I've kinda done this sort of thing before."

Weiss face twisted, eyes narrowing as she fought to bite her tongue. _Be the best teammate, Schnee!_

Weiss was saved before she could reply by the loud ringing of a bell, signalling the end of the class time. She immediately grabbed her half-finished box and remaining scrap metal, leaving the solder she used on the table, and stormed out the room. There was a warm bed and a hot bath to get to, and a teammate to not yell at.

"Weiss! Weeiisss!" Ruby chased after the heiress, trying to get her attention. "I don't actually think you're my mom!"

Weiss sighed, slowing her pace. She eyed Ruby for a short moment, taking into consideration what had happened. She'd overreacted to nothing, really, the Schnee decided in the end. It wasn't anything out of the ordinary that Weiss could cling to as a reason for her actions. Her tightly-knitted brows loosened. Looking down, Weiss could see the amount of grime that now covered them. Yet Ruby's were somehow spotless.

Her hard edge returned, voice rising as she spoke. "I'm not used to this, or to heard what he said. What did he mean by any of it? Did he think it would be a _smart_ move to drive out over half the class with his speech? I know you idolize him, Ruby, but can't you see? He's just some arrogant old man spewing _nonsense._ We shouldn't be in class if we don't want to learn? What value is there in saying that!? We're all here to improve ourselves! It's a school for dust's sake!"

Rather than respond immediately, Ruby walked in silence beside Weiss through the buildings, feet knowing the route to their room by instinct. It wasn't a permanent reprieve, Weiss knew that much, but she was thankful her leader had learned some tactfulness over their duration at Beacon. This chance to let the frustrations drain from her head was something Ruby never gave her when they first met.

"Well, you aren't taking this course to improve yourself, are you?" Ruby spoke up, putting an end to the silence. Weiss' pace slowed momentarily, not expecting the harmless accusation, before returning to her normal speed.

"What are you talking about?"

The younger girl grinned, an expression Weiss envied terribly. Whatever thoughts which twisted in that noggin of hers, the reasons she had to smile, the lack of reason to frown, it always eluded the white-haired girl. No matter how hard she tried, outside of some lucky guessing based on previous behaviour, Weiss could never fully understand her leader.

"You're taking the course to help me, remember?" Ruby chirped, walking backwards in front of her partner after a sudden red blur. The residual rose petals floated about her's and Weiss' feet. "Ozpin can be tough, but I think he means well. Just—Try not to take it so personally, okay?"

Something felt off to the heiress. Normally there was a constant empty pit gnawing on her insides, or a response she was so used to giving she couldn't stop herself before it escaped. It was a habit she struggled to break, but right now Weiss didn't feel any of it. The venom which typically dripped from her tongue, twisting her words, was missing for once. Weiss instead felt as though no words would come to her, and it was making her feel more uncomfortable than anything else ever had. She wet her lips, trying to restore her normalcy, before speaking:

"Okay." Ruby spun back to Weiss' side, pleased with her partner's response. "I'll give it a couple more days."

* * *

Weiss walked out of the bathroom, wearing a soft white robe with the Schnee Dust Company's emblem stitched over her heart, and a blue towel wrapped around her head. They may have all been girls, and known each other for a long enough time now, but that wouldn't stop Weiss from maintaining her modesty.

That, and her memory of the one time she _did_ walk around the dorm topless. Followed by the stares of Ruby and Blake, both watching with vested interest, as Yang snuck up behind the Schnee. In a single swift motion the brawler rarely showcased, Yang had grabbed Weiss by her breasts, cooing in her ear about how she should let 'the girls' out more often.

 _Never again._

Weis shuddered at the memory, pulling her robe around herself a little tighter. If that childish behaviour was how they would respond, then so be it. She wouldn't make the same mistake twice.

And it certainly explained why Ruby and Blake also kept their nudity to a minimum, never walking around without some protection from Yang's prying eyes and plotting mind.

Sitting down on her bed, Weiss let out a breath. She felt relaxed, unhindered by the long first day of the new semester. A few words spoken between the sisters of the room could be made out as they went on excitedly about their experiences. Yang currently was boasting about some sort of pastry, or something, while Ruby seemingly ignored her to describe what the 'machine shop' was like.

Blake, on the other hand, sat quietly on her bed, the only sound made being that of a turning page. Without looking up to meet the Schnee's gaze, the faunus' lips parted and her practiced monotone voice slipped out. "How did your day go?"

"It was fine." Weiss responded, used to how Blake always knew when someone was watching her. The heiress was the same, after all.

"Fine?" Blake's bow twitched in the direction of their motormouth leader, who was now currently talking about Weiss' reaction to Ozpin's speech, and her own ' _super amazing consoling skills.'_

"It… could have gone better, but everything else was fine. All my other classes have begun smoothly, and although I may have have some criticism over Ozpin's teaching style, I began my work like everyone else." Weiss stated, attention turning to the metal half-box sitting on the table beside her bed.

"Well, that's good to hear." Blake's lips turned upwards behind her novel, steady voice keeping the conversation light. She turned the page again, yellow eyes scanning the words before her as she sat halfway between the realms of fiction and reality.

"What about you? How was your special cooking class with Yang?"

"We burned a cake." The faunus replied immediately, much to the horrors of her golden-haired partner. The same partner who was suddenly cutting off Ruby to walk over and correct Blake.

"We did _not_ burn a cake!"

"You're right. You burned a cake." Blake's smile flattened, hiding her fun.

Yang stood over Blake, the rest of the world around her unimportant at the moment. "Our cake was fantastic and you know it."

Blake tossed her scroll past the blonde and towards Weiss' lap, an image of a blackened object already open. "Burnt cake."

"Blake no!" Yang yelled dramatically, turning to watch the object fall into the heiress' hands. The robed girl stared incredulously at the image, before she let out a single giggle, biting her tongue to hold back the laughter as her mouth transformed into an incredibly smug, quivering grin. She couldn't stop herself, especially not when she heard Ruby laughing at the dropped scroll; even Blake joined in, her own chuckle barely audible over the red and white duo.

Yang collapsed to the floor with all the showmanship of a broadway actress on her debut night. "How _could_ you, Blake!? I thought we were _partners!_ Doesn't that mean _anything_ to you?"

The room continued to fill with laughter, Blake going so far as to put down her book and play her part as the emotional lover Yang had begun painting her out to be. She certainly did a good job of it, even speaking the entire time in a higher octave than usual, and when she leaned in to kiss her would-be lover, Weiss would have been reluctant to admit she watched with baited breath. Her own partner beside her acted disgusted as she watched through the spaces between the fingers 'covering' her eyes, but all for naught, as Blake pulled away a mere moment before contact, smirking in victory.

"Aww, don't tease me like that, Blakey!" Yang mock cried from the floor, getting up and brushing herself off.

"Sorry," Blake replied as she picked back up her book, returning to her literary paradise, "but I'm more of a wine and dine girl."

"If it's a nice night you want, I bet I could give you one." Yang said around a yawn, ruining her flirty visage as the day finally bore down on her tired body.

"I'll have to take a raincheck, thanks."

Weiss tuned out the end of her teammates' antics and play-flirting, not needing to see it through to know the ending would be the same as usual: Yang passed out mid-sentence. Instead she lifted her own sheets, putting on her nightgown and undergarments from behind the protection of her robe.

Sliding under the covers of her bed, Weiss noticed the used clothes of her leader being tossed over the end of her blanket fortress above, landing in a pile below. Everyone was getting ready for a night's rest in preparation for the next day, mixed feelings of excitement, contentment, and anxiety palpable in the air. Or maybe that was just from Yang sweating during her performance.

"Good night, Weiss." The heiress heard spoken quietly above her. She didn't know why Ruby said it every night, but considering how close the junior was to her sister, Weiss merely attributed it to Ruby being used to wishing Yang a good sleep each night.

It became routine, when one day she started replying. The day after she said she would make an effort to improve… Already feeling so far behind herself, yet what changed?

"Good night, Ruby."

 _This changed._

* * *

 **A/N: Hello reader, and thank you for continuing thus far. I put a lighter spin on the second section of this chapter in hopes of balancing the mood a little more. I do plan on continuing Weiss' internal conflicts, but I also want this to be fun to read. Sadly, this part of the story isn't the happiest time in Weiss' life, so it'll be more emotionally invested. You'd be shocked to know I actually had a ton of fluffy humour in my head for this story, but Debbie Downer has forced my hand to take a more serious approach.**

 **Which is tedious, because I want to see happy character as much as everyone else!**

 **Comments and criticism are alway welcome and warmly received. Let me know what you thought about the chapter!**

 **On a more technical point, this chapter is currently still open for heavy revision. I'm not as happy with it as I am with the others, but I can't put my finger on why. If anyone has an opinion on this, please let me know in a review or PM.**

 _ **Notes:**_

 _ **02/06/2016 - Fixing chapter title underlining.**_


	4. Chapter 4 — In which Ruby is Patient

**Chapter 4 — In Which Ruby is Patient**

Weiss bit her lip, focusing on the metal construct before her. She was cutting holes into three of her sheets of metal. It was her second attempt now on the top plate, trying to punch a slot for her lever, with the original discarded in the scrap pile for someone else to eventually make use of… probably.

"How's it going, Weiss?"

And a second plate then followed its predecessor's footsteps, joining the reject pile. Weiss nearly punctured her lip with her teeth, before sighing and responding to her leader, not so much as turning around. "Just fine, Ruby. Thanks for asking. Again. For the _third time._ "

The Schnee could still feel the eyes of her leader on her back, an instinct honed over the duration of her life. Even as she grabbed another piece from the scrap pile and walked back to her station, whatever the machine was called, to try once again.

"Want some help?" Ruby's voice came from her side as she took a position next to Weiss. Sparing a glance, the heiress watched the innocent smile and bright eyes of the redhead. She wanted nothing more than to shove her greasy palm into Ruby's face and push her away, frustrated enough with her project. She didn't need the usual struggles of dealing with her younger superior as well.

"No, thank you." Weiss hissed through grit teeth.

"Are you sure? Because class ended five minutes ago and you're still here…"

The snow-themed girl looked around the room abruptly, finding it completely empty, save the two of them and _Ozpin,_ still sitting behind his desk silently. The accursed man spent half the class actually showing the students around the room, and its many devices for metalwork, despite them all figuring it out the previous class, before sitting back down behind his desk again and eyeing the student body over his small glasses.

 _What are they even for? They're too small to be useful!_ Weiss thought spitefully, turning back to Ruby.

"I'll only be a couple more minutes, if I could just have them in silence."

Ruby looked down, fingers intertwined around her own switch box. The beautiful button was now painted a sleek red with black details, and the edges were all beautifully soldered together. In fact, some didn't even look joined, but instead a single piece. Small wires poked out the top and bottom of the completed project, _but how? We only had half an hour; she did all that already?_

Weiss looked away from her leader, back to her station. The something-cutter that used highly concentrated lightning dust—Plasma cutter? It didn't matter, so long as she could use it to complete her task.

Ten minutes later, Weiss finished the incredibly slow and precise assault on her steel sheet, holding it up and admiring her own handiwork. Now all that was left was to poke a hole through a stick and attach it to the inside of her box, then wire it and she'd be finished.

Turning, Ruby was found sitting on the beaten wooden table beside the rest of the heiress' assignment, head bobbing away to the music playing through headphones over her ears and hands fiddling with the button she spent so much time making the previous class. Her perfectly crafted little button, on her perfectly crafted little box.

And Ozpin was still sitting, though he was now looking intently at some paperwork in one hand, rather than staring at Weiss as he had been previously.

Weiss walked over to the table, grabbing her stuff and putting it in a bag she had smartly brought with her to class this time, rather than carrying the parts in her hands again. Ruby took notice of her approaching, pulling off her headphones and quickly turning down the volume as the music immediately filled the otherwise silent room. It was an offensively distasteful _Rock 'n' Roll_ of some sort, with scratchy singing that would have made the Schnee's old vocals instructor pop a blood vessel.

"You ready to go now?" Ruby asked, blushing in embarrassment. Weiss huffed subtly.

"Yes. I should be able to finish on Friday, now that I'm sufficiently caught up."

Weiss began walking towards the door out of the classroom, ready to leave the dirty hole of a classroom she had been confined to.

"Hey! Where's my 'thank you?'"

"Thank you? For what?" The heiress raised an eyebrow genuine confusion, unsure of why her leader was now pouting at her as she followed behind.

"For being quiet! I didn't bug you at all after you asked me not to."

Weiss swore she heard a quiet, single chuckle from the man in the green scarf known as their headmaster, though a quick look over her shoulder revealed nothing but his poker face.

"I have to thank you for doing what's expected?"

"Of course! It's common courtesy to thank the people who do things for you."

"All right, fine. T _hank you, Ruby Rose._ Happy now?"

Ruby made a humming sound as she nodded her head, positively beaming with her lips pressed in a large smile. It was ridiculous, childish—downright silly—and yet somehow satisfying to the heiress.

"Now let's go. I want to stop at the cafeteria before we head back to the dorms." Weiss said as she turned away, beginning to walk down the hallway as she tried to suppress a grin.

* * *

Ruby and Weiss sat across from each other in the dining hall, taking bites from their respective meals. Other students idly milled about, not many coming out for a meal so late in the day. The Rudimentary Mechanics course was an odd one, due to it taking place in the eight to nine timeslot in the evening. No other course was so late, but Weiss wrote it off as most likely taking place to fit into Ozpin's probably hectic schedule. Surely he had headmaster duties during the rest of the day.

Ruby made a joke, laughing by herself across the table as Weiss zoned out. Her fork absently poked at the modest salad in front of her, otherwise untouched.

"You okay, Weiss?" The younger girl asked, drawing her older partner out of the trance. She was nibbling on her dessert cookie, the rest of her dinner wiped clean. Something about the Rose-Xiao Long family, they ate as though the world was about to burn.

"Yeah, I'm just thinking."

"About what?" Weiss stabbed some lettuce, sticking the piece in her mouth to buy some time. She really wasn't thinking about anything important, but Ruby would never accept such a bland response.

The heiress swallowed, freeing her mouth to speak again. "Just about how I'll be finishing the project on time. How are your studies in history going?"

"Ugh, they're fine, _mom._ " Ruby floundered on the table, looking mildly frustrated. "But Oobleck's been going a little too fast this semester. I'm starting to fall behind…"

"fall behind in what?" A voice called out from behind the red-themed girl, a thin, blonde man in a white hoodie and armour plating placing his tray on the table near the pair. He was accompanied by one other, who placed her own tray beside Weiss.

"Hi Jaune!" Ruby said to the new arrival, the Schnee nodding to Jaune's redheaded partner sitting beside her. "We were just talking about classes. History's tough this time around."

"Tell me about it!" Jaune replied, tone immediately sounding defeated. "I had a hard enough time keeping up last semester. If it weren't for Pyrrha, I probably would have failed."

"Oh nonsense. You did all the work, Jaune. I just helped keep you company." Pyrrha Nikos, Jaune's partner, spoke up, quick to divert the praise. "I'm sure you'll do fine this semester."

Weiss watched the conversation, keeping silent as Ruby and Jaune began speaking excitedly about some comic book or something, a hobby the Schnee had no interest in. Still, it was nice to see Ruby speaking with someone other than herself or their other teammates, even if that other was the team living across the hall from them.

"So, how's the engineering course?" Pyrrha spoke softly, as though not to disturb the red and white duo and their happy conversation. It was enough for Weiss to pick up on, but would go by unnoticed by Ruby, or the few surrounding students enjoying their own meals.

"Who told you? Was it Ruby?" A sudden edge came on the heiress' voice as she responded under her breath. "I swear, if it was Ruby again, I'm going to have to teach her a lesson about respecting—"

"No!" Pyrrha said louder, immediately going quiet again. "No, Yang told me. I'm sorry, was it a secret?"

"Apparently it isn't anymore. Xiao Long better watch her back…" Weiss picked through her salad, moving the food around until her fork suddenly pulled back. Before Pyrrha could ask about it, the utensil shot down into the bowl, spearing a lone yellow slice of mango near the bottom.

"I'll take that as a rocky start, then." The redhead spoke hesitantly. She was safe, so long as the fork didn't start piercing cherry tomatoes.

"It's going fine. The workload is manageable, the material is simple, and the teaching is…" Pyrrha leaned in closer, eager to listen. Ozpin teaching a course was gossip that quickly circulated around the school, and it started spreading much quicker once two thirds of the class walked out on the first day. "It's awful. He doesn't teach us anything, or when he does, it's too late. It's like he doesn't care at all. No one could show up on Friday, and he'd probably just shrug from behind that desk of his, sipping his coffee while looking over papers."

Pyrrha placed a hand on Weiss' shoulder, causing the white-themed girl to tense more than relax.

"Are you at least enjoying the rest of the course?"

"Far from it. The work is mindless, the few other students left are all absorbed in their own projects, and it feels like the place hasn't been cleaned since it was built." Weiss huffed, chewing on another bite of her salad before continuing. "I'm not learning anything useful."

"Well it is only the first week. I'm sure things will improve." Pyrrha smiled, trying to convey her encouragement. It reminded Weiss of how the warrior beside her typically treated Jaune. Constant support for the otherwise useless boy. It was almost insulting, being looked down on like an incompetent buffoon.

The heiress pushed the remains of her salad away, standing up abruptly. The red and white leaders on the other side of the table stopped their rambling immediately, attention drawn to the sudden motion.

"I'll be excusing myself now. Enjoy your meals."

It wasn't until Weiss had taken several steps towards the exit of the dining hall, that Ruby's eyes widened, and she jumped up to follow her partner. She shouted around a cookie swiped off of Jaune's tray. "Weiss! Wait up!"

* * *

"What the heck, Weiss? What was that about?"

Ruby followed a step behind her teammate, catching up with the Schnee in the courtyard. The girl in question didn't so much as pause her step, marching toward the dorms. She just wanted to shower, to wash off the grime that felt stuck to her skin. It was greasy filth that had no right touching the young heiress.

"I was finished my meal, that's all." Weiss responded with practiced ease. Her voice wasn't going to waver, not now.

The sound of the red leader behind her ceased, giving the heiress a moment of reprieve to believe she wouldn't be questioned. It lasted up until the voice appeared again, Ruby now in front of the heiress. She looked angry, or frustrated? Yet she wasn't going off on the heiress like she used to.

 _She's grown, Schnee. Now it's your turn._

"What did you talk to Pyrrha about?"

Weiss kept her gaze level, staring right through her partner. "She asked about the engineering course."

The reaction wasn't subtle. Ruby could always easily be read, her emotions worn on her sleeves. It was uncomfortable, the heiress used to dealing with her servants and those in business with the Schnee Dust Company. A smile didn't mean kindness, nor did a frown mean displeasure, in her world.

Weiss' hands clenched into fists, the only sign of her internal thoughts, while her leader's face shifted from a frown, to a smile, to shock and realization; it was followed by fear, then concern, and finally lingering doubt.

"And?"

Or was it confusion?

"You were smiling when we left. You were _happy_ when you left. What changed?"

"Nothing, Ruby! Nothing's changed! I didn't enjoy the first class, I wasn't enjoying the second class, and I won't enjoy the next class. To add to that, I certainly don't favour my hands being encased in black grime. Talking to Pyrrha just reminded me of that."

No, it wasn't confusion. It wasn't doubt, either. That look was Ruby's way of saying 'I'm listening.' She didn't explode, like Weiss did—Like Weiss always did. She just stared back at the Schnee, face unfazed by the outburst.

"What do you not like about the class?"

The courtyard was empty, street lamps flickering to life as the sun sunk behind the horizon. No one was around to see the two speaking, to witness the heiress struggle with her words. It was rare to find the girl hesitating when she spoke, typically responding immediately with at least some form of retort.

"… It's menial. It's basic. We're making boxes, for dust's sake. Anyone could do it. Something so simple is…"

"Beneath you?" Ruby's face didn't change, but her eyes did. They felt colder, the kind of eyes Weiss was used to. She didn't want to see those eyes from her teammate.

So she kept silent. It filled her with shame, watching her partner's eyes grow more and more chilled. At any moment, she could snap, the Schnee could feel it, but the longer it took, the worse it would be.

She wasn't afraid, rather Weiss was willing to stand in the explosion. It was the least she could do after running her mouth uncontrollably yet again. The white-haired girl shifted her weight, causing the bag with her project inside to rattle. She had completely forgotten she was even carrying the bag, the sound enough to jolt her nerves.

But it also caught the young leader's attention, and after hearing the noise, Ruby broke eye contact, looking at the strap her partner held onto. In time, her eyes softened, back to normal, and all at once she exhaled.

"We're only making boxes for one more class. You can last until after then, right?"

Weiss still hesitated, unsure of how she would respond if her lips were to part.

"For me?"

"... Fine."

* * *

 **A/N: Hello reader, and welcome back. Thank you for continuing up to his point. In case it's unclear, the Rudimentary Mechanics One course has classes every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. Since students enter Beacon at age seventeen, typically, I'm attributing the class schedule more to a Canadian university set up.**

 **If you have any feedback, criticism, or just want to blurt out what you liked/disliked, please feel free to leave a review. Also, letting me know about any mistakes in the grammar or spelling is greatly appreciated. These tired eyes barely have enough focus to write, let alone edit properly. I can't wait for my vacation.**

 **Also, thank you, guest, for mentioning a couple possible inconsistencies. To clarify, soldering is a form of joining two metals through the use of a filler metal with a low melting point (solder). It is certainly weaker than brazing or welding, but that's not to say it can't be used. In terms of simple practice, it is a safer and easier task than welding or brazing, and can be done with a blowtorch (source: I've done it with a blowtorch). It is also used in electronics, but for the purpose of solidly connecting wires with a conductive solder, not for creating any structural integrity.**

 **Welding in the first week of the introductory course might have been a bit much, so I leaned on personal experience and used a practice which was taught to me back when I took a first year course in wood shop and machine shop at my high school. People weren't welding until their third year, if my memory isn't betraying me. Also, even though hunters forge their own weapons typically, that doesn't mean they're all at the same level of expertise, and this class is designed to be introductory. Not to mention, other circumstances. (Who made Weiss' weapon? Who made Blake's weapon? What if Ruby helped Yang with hers? Jaune's was handed down to him, so how often might that happen?)**

 _ **Notes:**_

 _ **18/03/2016 - Minor typo correction.**_

 _ **02/06/2016 - Minor typo correction.**_

 _ **04/06/2016 - A couple words were missing. Weiss said "All right, you, Ruby Rose" instead of "All right fine. Thank you, Ruby Rose." Weird...**_


	5. Chapter 5 — In Which Ruby is Frustrated

**Chapter 5 — In Which Ruby is Frustrated**

Friday began like any other day, except with a few bumps. Weiss' shampoo had been depleted, most likely from Yang running out of her own and 'borrowing' some, as the blonde often referred to the act as; a couple bristles of the heiress' brush broke and became tangled in her hair, costing pain and extra time in the bathroom; her underwear turned out to have a hole in it, creating a need to get a new pair from her closet; Yang fooling around trying to tease Blake over a book of some sort caused her waggling hips to hit a desk, causing an ill-placed glass of water to fall over and spill onto Weiss's pillow.

The dorm was devoid of coffee beans, meaning the machine the Schnee worshipped in the morning was idle; Ruby had managed to catch the edge of her Crescent Rose on Weiss' skirt while passing by, ripping it; the larger frame of the team's yellow-headed trickster was roughly shoved into her once Blake had become fed up with the teasing, too early in the morning to bother with clever verbal comebacks; and when Weiss consequently fell backwards, it was into her water-soaked pillow, wetting her blouse.

Perhaps _a few_ was misleading.

Nevertheless, after the entire ordeal left team RWBY ten minutes late for their survival training class, Weiss sat down beside Blake. The dishevelled-looking faunus gave off a sense of unwilling participation in waves, her bow leaving strands of hair to fray in random directions. Ruby and Yang had taken seats elsewhere, being forced to separate and find whatever spots were still left open in the small lecture hall.

"Having a rough morning?" It was Blake who had initiated the conversation, already no longer paying attention to the lecture. Weiss couldn't blame her; their professor, Peter Port, was known to put students to sleep with his romanticized tales of past hunts. Apparently recounting how he beat a pack of beowolves with nothing but a stick and his cunning at the age of twelve constituted as survival training.

"Shouldn't I be asking you that?" Weiss whispered, dragging her eyes up and down the Faunus to emphasize her point. Although the heiress had settled her differences with the raven-haired girl and her past the previous semester, talking to Blake could still feel difficult at times. The Amity Colosseum wasn't built in a day, and neither was Weiss' trust.

Blake lifted up her textbook, hiding her face from the professor to create more privacy for the girls' side conversation. "I'll be fine once we're past nap time."

"Nap time?" Weiss asked, before mouthing an 'oh' as Blake pointed a finger through her book. Normally Weiss would scold someone for such childish behaviour, since that someone was normally Ruby, but seeing the stoic faunus make a joke nearly caused Weiss to crack and laugh. She settled for a smile, instead.

"So did something happen?"

"Nothing happened, why would you think so?" The Schnee gave a quizzical look, smile immediately wiped off her face.

"You went straight to bed when you got to the dorm—"

"I was tired."

"—without taking off your shoes. Ruby was pretty panicked about what to do, whisper yelling about how you'd hate the dirt in your bed."

"... I was really tired."

"Weiss." Blake turned her head fully, addressing the heiress. Despite her previously light tone, it seemed Blake was in a no-nonsense mood.

"Okay! I'm not happy about the mechaneering course." The white-haired girl said as quietly as possible.

"You mean engineering?"

"Whatever! It's run nothing like I expected, but still just as unpleasant. Ozpin may be a good headmaster, but he's a poor professor. I might drop the course and take something else while there's still time."

"You can't drop the course!" Blake responded a bit too quickly, eyes as wide as saucers. A couple heads turned in their general direction, but stopped paying any attention soon enough "... What would Ruby do without your help?"

 _You're supposed to be her partner, Schnee._

"Probably the same thing she does now; handle everything on her own." Weiss turned toward Professor Port, deciding to listen in on the ridiculous fairy tale of a story he was telling this morning. Blake continued watching her, textbook hiding the faunus from Port's inattentive eyes.

"It'll get better after the first week, I'm sure. Ozpin didn't seem too friendly in the opening ceremony, either. Maybe he's just bad at first impressions?" Blake tried, whispering what she could to encourage her teammate.

"Easy for you to say, you're baking cakes with Yang."

" _Burning_ cakes." The faunus corrected. Weiss didn't turn back, keeping her attention trained on the front of the class. Her monochrome counterpart took the hint, putting the textbook down and pretending to listen as well.

Blake was silent for the remainder of the class, though she spent a ridiculous amount of time on her scroll doing dust knows what. The heiress didn't bother looking at the low-brightness screen under the desk, despite the temptation to do exactly that. It bothered Weiss to see her teammate so blatantly disregard the class, no matter how dull and pointless Professor Port's lectures seemed. But instead of nudging Blake, Weiss held her tongue. It was a challenge, sure, but the Schnee wasn't quite sure if it was right of her to bother the faunus; not after the way the last semester ended.

Words were cheap, and actions weren't any more honest. Weiss had watched employees weasel their way into her family's company, paying lip service and performing better than anyone else, all to get closer to the secrets of the SDC. Blake said she was done with the White Fang, and the heiress had even seen the results of her teammate's fight with the terrorist organization, but people don't just _change._ That wasn't how the world worked.

She wanted to trust Blake. Truly, she did, and Blake had made it clear numerous times that she cared, even while holding a grudge against her Schnee namesake.

But trust never came easy to a girl raised in a house of suspicions and murder victims. She never mentioned it to her team, but Weiss lost count of the number of times the west wing of her family mansion was destroyed during attempts on her life. Bombs, fires, floods, semblances, and anything else the White Fang, competitors with the SDC, and arrogant kidnappers could throw at her.

There was a reason Weiss began learning fencing as soon as she could stand.

The loud ringing of a bell shook the girl from her thoughts. Her notes were practically empty, no better than Blake's beside her.

Everyone began shuffling their things together, as Port grumbled about his story getting cut short before wishing his students a "fulfilling weekend." That, and his usual verbal trap about the door to his office being open to any students looking for extra credits. The first—and last—time Weiss went into the professor's work-space, she found herself trapped for the following three hours as he went from one tale to another.

 _It wasn't worth the extra one percent…_

"Hey, Weissicle! Are you just gonna sit there all day?" The heiress cursed herself for becoming lost in thought again so quickly, Ruby's sister Yang yelling from the front of the classroom where the rest of her team waited.

"I told you not to call me that!" Weiss shouted back, her voice cracking amidst the sentence. She kept her eyebrows furious as she glared at the blonde, ignoring the betrayal of her own body.

"How can I, when you're sitting there frozen to the bench?"

The Schnee gnashed her teeth, nearly snarling, while Yang shot back a carefree smile full of pearly whites. Stomping down, Weiss reached towards her skirt for a hidden phial of dust.

"I'll show you _frozen._ "

"Whoa there, Weiss! C-calm down, no need to hurt somebody." Ruby immediately grabbed the heiress' arm, keeping it from pulling out and tossing the icy trap meant for assaulters. She certainly felt assaulted by her so-called 'teammates.'

"Let me go, Ruby!"

Yang, the ever-existing shit disturber, found her lips turning more impish by the second.

"You're a lot more heated than normal. It couldn't be that you're melting on us, could it?"

Ruby held on tighter, sure that Weiss would become more aggressive in her attempts to toss the ice dust now in her hand. Instead she calmed slightly, though still looked just as angry.

"When have I ever been cold towards you... recently?" Weiss spoke, adding to the sentence as an afterthought.

"You're trying to throw cold toward her right now, Weiss." Ruby whispered, a little too loud into her partner's ear. The subsequent laughter that burst from Yang, and even the soft chuckle out of Blake, a bystander to the torture, was too much for Weiss. Her anger deflated finally when Ruby, a few seconds later, realized what she said caused, and then tried her keep her quivering lips from releasing her own giggle. Her eyes shone with both amusement and terror, being the closest to the potential danger.

"Ladies, I hate to ruin the moment, but you're currently keeping my next class from entering. If you're so willing to sit in on my next lesson, then please, take a seat. You don't need to stand there waiting to ask me."

Peter Port smiled at team RWBY, firmly believing his tales of wonder were the cause of his four students' good mood. The girls immediately turned to their teacher, panicking as they all froze thinking of different excuses. Blake was the first to speak, the rest of her team conveying their silent thanks with turned heads.

"Sorry, sir, but we have another class to attend. I don't believe Miss Goodwitch would be happy if we were late."

The man's expression immediately turned to understanding and surprise, shooing team RWBY out the door. "Glynda, you say! You best be off then, students, lest you want to incur her wrath."

"You mean detention?" Ruby piped up, curious.

"Erm—Yes, I mean detention. You don't want Glynda's detention _._ "

* * *

The rest of the day was a grind, each class feeling as though it was meant to break Weiss down. Ending up against Pyrrha Nikos in sparring with Glynda Goodwitch; the cafeteria lacking fresh salad during lunch; Advanced Dust Usage with Professor Peach lacking the professor for the first twenty minutes of the lecture; nothing was going right. The only class remaining was Rudimentary Mechanics.

It was no exception.

Sweat dripped onto the table, clock ticking through the final few minutes. As it had many times before, a small towel tabbed at the heiress' forehead, wiping away the perspiration. It wasn't her own hand holding the cloth. No, they were occupied with a metal box and a blowtorch, fueled by the glowing red dust crystal contained within the glass tube and connected to the nozzle of the tool.

Weiss' head was instead being wiped by her partner, completely unaware of Ruby's actions as she focused on completing her project before Headmaster— _Professor?_ —Before Ozpin began marking. It had already been almost an hour, with just ten minutes remaining before the bell rang.

The man in the green scarf and tiny spectacles was sat, staring at the back wall of the class. Everyone else finished already, either talking among themselves or watching the Schnee work. There were smiles, frowns, giggles, and even the odd joke as, at some point, every student looked toward the girl in black-covered white.

 _Why won't it stay!? Just this last piece, there isn't any more time! Come on!_ Weiss shouted in her head, her arms shaking in the slightest. They were betraying her, along with the blasted metal, as her switch wouldn't stick.

"There!"

Those talking quietly stopped and turned, while those who already were looked away. Weiss Schnee was standing tall, back no longer hunched over the battered wooden table, and Ruby beaming beside her.

Across the room, Cardin Winchester opened his mouth to comment. "It's a—"

 _Ring ring._

An alarm went off on the desk at the front of the class, Ozpin's scroll lighting up as it vibrated softly. Though, with the silence from the students it created, that gentle shaking could be heard crystal clear from the farthest corner of the room.

The headmaster's chair scraped back, all eyes on the taller man. He, in turn, had his lids shut, taking a long, quiet breath. He opened them, scanning over every single student.

"Marking will now begin. Please line up with your projects, single file, in front of my desk."

Weiss grinned viciously, feeling victorious over the silly class. She'd accomplished the task, as she always did, despite how tedious and annoying it was. Despite how the day was working against her in every way imaginable. Ruby was bouncing on the spot, smiling away like a maniac as she held a switch box of her own in her small hands.

"C'mon, c'mon, c'mon, Weiss! Let's get in line already!"

The heiress walked proudly with her assignment, ending up behind the ecstatic girl in red who ran to the line. They were near the back of the ten person group, and despite the youngest student's immense excitement, her body rocking back and forth on her feet, the air felt tense.

"Pass."

The line moved forward, but the students remained silent. There was no real need to worry, since Weiss had completed her assignment. Velvet walked by the pair, smiling down at her little device.

"Pass."

Weiss couldn't see the front properly from her place in line, only the pink-haired girl that walked by, carrying a switch box of her own. The Schnee didn't recognize her, having not seen her on Wednesday when the remainder of the class was given a tour of the machine shop.

"Pass."

Weiss stepped forward, still three people ahead of her. _Is he not giving us percentages?_

"Pass."

 _How do we know how well we've done, then?_ She reflected.

"Pass."

Ruby stepped forward, her partner having a clear view of her soon-to-be examiner's process. His lips curved up subtly as he observed the polished metal reflect the light of the room. The box was connected to three wires, and with the click of the elegant, engraved button, a small light at the end of one wire lit up, the other turning off as the signal switched between the two.

He then lifted the box back up with both hands, keeping perfectly still, and placed it down in front of Ruby.

"Pass."

The girl smiled, doing the one thing no one else had before her. She spoke. "Thank you, sir!"

Weiss stepped into the place previously occupied by her teammate, putting her own box down on the table. Ozpin's smile was gone, back to his neutral poker face as he examined the object of her anguish over the past week.

One light lit up, once it was connected, then the other as the man moved the lever. Weiss looked proud, puffing her chest out as she stood tall. Her switch had passed the test like the rest.

She waited for the headmaster to hand her back the little box, fingers flexing as she fought to keep her hands at her side instead of outstretched waiting for him. Ozpin picked it up, like every other, and held still for a second.

And then a snap reverberated through the silent room.

The box was flattened. Broken. Destroyed between the older man's hands. The weak solder along each connecting wall cracked and separated like thin, brittle ice.

He held out the crushed device to the heiress, who was shaking as she stared down at the _thing._ Her rattling head turned up toward Ozpin's face, watching his lips move, but Weiss couldn't hear anything. The world was nothing but a dampened muffle, sounds from every direction stopping short of her ears.

The Schnee turned, tossing off the hand on her shoulder she hadn't realized was there, and walked out of the grimy engineering building.

* * *

"Weiss, _please_ talk to me."

Ruby stood under a tree, looking down at the huddled form of the sitting Weiss. With arms wrapped around her knees, and head firmly hidden in the pillow they created, the white-themed girl stayed unresponsive.

"As your leader, I command you to tell me what's wrong." Ruby tried using her authority, to no avail. She didn't expect it to work, but she thought at least Weiss would twitch or get mad about it.

"How about as your partner?"

The Schnee didn't so much as move. Ruby crouched down, trying to get level with her teammate.

"Weeeiiiiisssssss."

Three seconds.

"Weeeeeeeeiiiiiiiissssssss"

Three more seconds.

"Weeeeeeeeeeeeeiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii—"

"Go away, Ruby."

"Nope." The redhead smiled, finally getting some sort of response. It was short lived, though, when her friend looked up at her. There was no sadness in Weiss' eyes. No tears. She didn't look broken.

Just angry.

"Go. Away."

"So you failed the first project, no biggie, right? It's only been a week. You can make it up on the next assignment." Ruby kept on trying to look happy, to be strong and positive, but the black hole of a gaze Weiss returned was forcibly sucking the energy from her.

"There won't _be_ a next assignment."

The Schnee felt distant, like talking to her on the first day at Beacon.

"T-that's crazy. Ozpin wouldn't go the entire semester without giving us another assignment." Ruby stuttered, the attempt at ignorance was lost as Ruby's voice wavered, along with her grin.

"There won't be another assignment, there won't be another class, and there won't be another course. Don't you get it, Ruby? I'm done." Weiss spoke with all the discipline and clarity in the world, keeping her words perfectly level. "This isn't a course I can pass. My switch worked like everyone else's, yet I was the only one to fail."

"Well, yours kinda did break…" The young superior mumbled, averting her gaze. The heiress' vision only narrowed.

"I did what was asked, and yet I still failed. It's impossible for me to pass this course, so I'm dropping it."

Ruby grit her teeth, fists clenching. "So you're just giving up, like that? After one screw up?"

Weiss stood up, brushing off her skirt.

"What happened to learning weapon maintenance so that you could help me?" It'd been too long since Ruby felt the familiar rage bubbling up from under her skin. The heat, the frustration, the feeling of agency, as though she could make a difference on a whim.

It scared Weiss, to see her teammate like that again. She wanted to avoid it, to send Ruby off so she wouldn't be burdened. The heiress only wanted to push her leader away. So she scoffed. "Don't be so childish, Ruby."

"Childish!? You're the one running away as soon as things get hard!"

"I don't have a choice! Ozpin's made it clear he doesn't want me in that class!"

"You just don't want to be in the class!" The redhead punched the tree beside them to emphasize her point, leaving her hand bloody from the sloppy form and rough surface. It probably hurt immensely, but the leader's only recognition was biting the side of her lip as her Aura went to work stitching up the fresh cuts.

"So what?" Ruby took a step back from her partner's response. Her anger was flickering, losing momentum after just peaking. "I don't like it, that's obvious enough! But I was—" _You were willing to do it to help her._

"Was what?"

Weiss swallowed, fighting her tongue. She'd never slipped up before. Her anger and her attitude would lead to mistakes, but these emotions? The single moment was such a rush of fear and freedom, that it confused Weiss to no end.

"I was taking it to be the best partner I can be."

It fell on deaf ears, Ruby only taking the words for what they were. "Some best partner. Glad to know you'll leave me to die as soon as you take a hit."

"I would never—"

"Don't bother. Just go drop the stupid course." The young teen turned, walking back toward the dorm. Weiss was left standing, the old scar over her eye burning. Ruby only paused for a moment, tilting her head over her shoulder.

"Good night, _partner._ "

* * *

 **A/N: Hello reader, and thank you for reaching this point. I'll, uh… I'll see myself out now.**

 **I'd like to keep an update schedule of every other Thursday, but I can't make any promises. It's mostly a rough guide to when you can start messaging me asking where the next chapter is.**

 **I also don't want to talk about my plans for the story, how it'll be structured, etc., for fear of ruining the experience for readers, but I will say I plan on making this story a long one. If this were a physical book, you'd be able to see how far in you are, so I don't feel it right to leave readers believing that this story could be shorter than it will end up being. I'm anticipating something over thirty chapters.**

 **As always, both positive and negative feedback is greatly appreciated. Telling me what you like, and more importantly what you dislike, is how I know what needs to be reviewed for changes to better fit what the reader experience is intended to be.**

 _ **Notes:**_

 _ **05/04/2016 - There was an Antichrist level typo hiding, along with a couple other minor grammatical mistakes.**_

 _ ** _02/06/2016 - Trying to fix the missing underlines on th_ e chapter titles.**_


	6. Chapter 6 — In Which Ruby Is Honest

**Foreword: If you've left a review as a guest, then thank you very much! Your support and criticism is very much appreciated. Sadly though, I can't message you back, so when you do criticize, I don't have the opportunity to discuss the subject of criticism in order to analyze how it may be approached differently or improved upon.**

 **If you are a guest reviewer, and would be willing to discuss any of your feedback, feel free to message me on any of my accounts across the internet. JesterSeraph is a relatively unique name to me, as far as I can tell, but most notably you can reach me here, on Reddit, Wattpad, and Tumblr (Corner Time). Any accounts on other websites may be months before I check, such as Newgrounds, DeviantArt, Rooster Teeth/Screw Attack, or… Minecraft forums? Wow. Impressive, Google.**

* * *

 **Chapter 6 — In Which Ruby Is Honest**

 _Absolutely ridiculous! She's blowing things way out of proportion. There's nothing wrong with dropping a course you're not suited for._

 _What about being the best partner, Schnee?_

Weiss bit her lip, fighting with herself in monologue. Ruby's previous reaction was completely out of line, without a doubt, but it still left the Atlesian feeling sick with anger and guilt.

 _I'm not the one at fault here, she is! She pushed me into taking the course, Blake and Yang turned tail and ran as soon as they could, and Ozpin_ clearly _doesn't want me in the classroom. What am I supposed to do otherwise?_

" _You'll leave me to die as soon as you take a hit."_

"I wouldn't…" The heiress mumbled under her breath, reliving the spat she had earlier. Glynda's office was closed by the time she reached it, so dropping the course was pushed off until Saturday.

Instead Weiss found herself curled up under the sheets of her bed. The room was dark as three of the four members of team RWBY waited for sleep to overtake them. Blake and Yang had probably already been visited by the Sandman, but Weiss couldn't manage the task. Instead she tossed and turned, fighting with herself.

Worst of all, the Schnee's stomach was practically eating itself with hunger. She assumed it likely that her leader had gone to get food after she left, and Weiss wasn't about to open the can of worms again.

She was angry, but more so she was hurt. They both were. Weiss just couldn't figure out why Ruby was so upset over the whole thing.

The dorm's entrance cracked open, light spilling forth from the outer hallway into the room as the silhouette of a cloak stepped in. The Atlesian stayed perfectly silent, unmoving, as the steps of combat boots led into the shared bathroom, a different door clicking shut and light shining out from around the frame.

Once the shower turned on, Weiss breathed again. Her chest was tight, twisted, while angry thoughts buzzed around. The obscured sight of her partner was enough to make the Schnee feel every bit as frustrated and upset as she had earlier. It was an ugly sensation, one she hated every second of, but still Weiss couldn't help it. The scar over her eye was burning again.

The sounds of running water stopped, and shortly after the illumination of the bathroom disappeared. No longer able to see, the heiress listened to the padded steps. They moved toward her bed, slowly drawing nearer, until they stopped.

Right in front of Weiss' head.

She could smell the rose-scented shampoo her leader used, matching her namesake. It was such an oddly mature perfume, clashing with the user's typically childish antics.

There we no words spoken. Ruby stood over Weiss, unmoving, as the seconds dragged on like minutes. It was maddening, lying awake with eyes closed as the person Weiss wanted to avoid most hovered about.

She was about to shuffle, to open her eyes, to ask what Ruby wanted, fed up with the situation and annoyed enough to make a move despite the anxiety she was burdened with. But the floor creaked.

Ruby jumped up to her own makeshift bunk, the deadly contraption held by ropes straining under the additional weight. Sheets ruffled, a sigh escaped, and a few seconds after the even breathing of the team's youngest member began.

* * *

The following morning was a dreary overcast. Clouds blanketed the sky, blocking all sunlight. With the curtains drawn though, the light of day wasn't what awoke Weiss; rather, it was the alarm on her scroll, vibrating under her pillow.

Saturdays were meant for sleeping in, when the team didn't have classes and could wake up as late as they wanted. Typically, it was a day where Ruby would wake the others around ten, and the group would head to the cafeteria for breakfast together. She called it 'team bonding,' but it was usually met with Jaune, the leader of team JNPR, doing the same, and the eight students total going on about their weeks.

Today wouldn't be an ordinary Saturday. Waking up three hours before the rest of her team, Weiss moved as silently as she could through the room, gathering her clothes and dressing before quickly making her way out. Yang was still snoring blissfully, Blake below sleeping with her bow visibly flattened, hidden ears trying to block out the sound of her teammate. Ruby's sheet fort remained unmoving.

 _Step one, complete._ The heiress thought as the door closed behind her. She walked briskly down the halls of the large building, navigating the stairwells like the back of her hand, until the main exit passed her by. Steady steps still, Weiss strode across the courtyard to the central structure of the campus, home to the offices of all faculty.

As the white-haired girl approached Professor Goodwitch's door, she saw a small note stuck with tape, elegant handwriting scrawled across the sheet of paper.

' _Currently under renovations. If needed, my temporary office is located in room E32, in the east wing. Thank you for understanding.'_

 _The east wing? Why was she relocated to the engineering building?_ Face turning cross, Weiss glared at the note. She wanted nothing more than to never return to the dirty section of the school, but it was all to end this mess.

It would be worth it.

Weiss returned to her long strides, posture the image of aristocracy. With her back straight, shoulders drawn, and chin up, the long heels of her shoes clacked along the tile floor, legs moving with purpose.

It was a long walk, twisting through the corridors of the school as the heiress slowly went deeper into lesser-explored territory. Although she understood where the engineering wing _was,_ Weiss barely knew her way around the building. The only certain path was to the entrance of the room her class with Ruby was in, and back.

Left turn: 'E11,' 'E12,' 'E13." Right turn: 'E26,' 'E28,' 'G24.' Right turn: 'G13,' 'H04,' 'E20?'

 _Who designed this maze!?_

Weiss soon found herself hopelessly lost, with no map nearby and no students wandering the halls so early in the morning. She'd reached the second floor somehow, despite not remembering any stairs along the way, and the room numbers stopped making any sense at all. It'd been too many turns since she'd entered, so retracing was no longer an option.

 _Focus, Schnee. You're better than this._

Weiss breathed, letting the unwanted tension out of her muscles, before resuming her hunt. She swore some rooms had the same number and letter, meant to do nothing more than trick her into believing she'd been down the hall before, but the others around her seemed to be completely different from the last time.

Just about ready to yank out her hair, Weiss began stomping through the hallways. Surely, at the very least, she could make enough noise to draw Glynda's attention, wherever she was. The current space felt so familiar to the heiress, but so did the others. Their familiarity was that they were all identical. Once light walls practically stained black with filth, cracked flooring and the occasional flickering—or downright broken—light. Slabs of wood for doors, with permanently foggy glass cut into them, and paint on the surrounding trim peeling away.

It was decrepit, underfunded, and forgotten. It didn't belong in the otherwise pristine school.

 _Clang!_

Weiss' face lit up at the sound of metal on metal. Where there was noise, there were other people! Searching for the source, the heiress ran to a nearby door, just about ready to open it.

Until the sight through the window froze her in place. A familiar collection of grey, red, and black metals laid stationary on a wooden table just inside the room, unfolded in all its glory. Crescent Rose, Ruby's trademark weapon, sat with a few pieces disassembled. The red-cloaked owner soon appeared, standing up with her back to the door, headphones over her ears, holding a wrench she probably just dropped.

Weiss stepped back immediately, struck by a sudden moment of panic. _Familiar yet not,_ the Schnee had walked down the hall of her soon-to-be ex-classroom, but from the opposite direction she normally came.

"Is there a problem, Miss Schnee?"

Surprised for hopefully the last time that morning, the Atlesian girl twisted to find Ozpin standing behind her in his worn black suit and green scarf. He stood patiently, as though he'd been waiting there for minutes now, with one arm raised to hold a mug of coffee to his lips.

"Oh, sir! I didn't see notice you." Weiss stated, coming down from the sudden adrenaline rush. "What brings you to the engineering wing?"

The headmaster's eyebrow quirked, a small smile showing in the absence of a crowd. "I didn't know I wasn't allowed to wander my own school." He joked, continuing before his student could backpedal. "I was just out for a morning walk. This is my favourite area."

"Really?" Weiss couldn't help the condescending tone that slipped out, her attention given to the dirty walls and cracked flooring.

"Indeed."

Ozpin stared off into space for a moment, the heiress unsure how to act, until his eyes turned again. They settled on Weiss, a soft gaze that told far too much. It wasn't a look of concern, nor one of curiosity. It was a challenge, deceitfully sharp, and far too knowing. As though he could tell the outcome of the conversation before it even happened.

"And How about yourself? What brings you out to my classroom?"

"I was looking for Glynda, actually." Weiss smiled, lips curving with practiced ease. "Her temporary office is supposed to be 'E32?' I'm trying to find it."

"Well, you won't find that room anywhere near here. It's on the third floor, second left down the main hallway. One of the electronics rooms."

The two stood in silence, Ozpin's gaze drifting from his student to the rest of the hallway in all its blackened glory. The young heiress urged herself to move on, to seek out Glynda, but something about the lackadaisical expression the headmaster wore irked her. It reminded her of her failure, of the way he looked her dead in the eyes as he snapped her hard work, unconcerned. Didn't he care at all about what it would do to his students? Telling them they shouldn't be in the course in the first place, that they were all just wasting time? It didn't seem right at all, nor was it wasn't helping any of them become hunters.

"Why did you fail me?" Weiss surprised herself, eyes turning shocked as the words fell out of her traitorous mouth.

Apparently her professor shared the sentiment, as his eyebrows rose gently, gaze returning to the short girl. "I beg your pardon?"

"My assignment, I was the only one who didn't pass. It worked like everyone else's, it just broke after. That's only half of it, and fifty is still a pass." The Schnee hadn't actually put any thought behind her mark until now. She'd just immediately accepted her failure and planned around it.

"Tell me, Weiss; do you like mechanical work?"

"Well, no."

"Then why are you taking my course?"

"To help Ruby." The heiress responded automatically, scrunching her brow at Ozpin's question dodging. He merely smiled in return.

"And how, exactly, do you plan to help her?"

"By doing some of the repair work for the team, instead of leaving her to manage it all on her own."

"So what happens if you do a repair, and midway through a fight with a Grimm, Ruby's trigger you fixed jams?"

"They'd—"

"Or if Blake's blade you hardened shatters, right is she tries to deflect an Ursa's strike?"

Weiss stayed silent, her face a mixture of confusion and panic as various scenarios began playing through her mind.

"The box working had nothing to do with your mark, Weiss. I was going to fail you whether or not it broke because it lacked the most important factor: passion." Ozpin stood tall, staring down at the top of the heiress' head. Her chin had tucked subconsciously to get a good view of the headmaster's shoes. "Helping others in a kind gesture, and it shows you care, but that care is misplaced. Rather than learning how to repair your own weapon, you could hone your fighting skills to a point where you don't need repairs as often. Or your dust knowledge could be improved, to a point where you can buy Ruby time to perform a repair amidst battle.

"Instead you chose to take my course, a subject you dislike. You could be doing greater things, but you're too busy spending time and talent learning a skill for the sake of your teammate. It's a truly selfless act, but selfless acts are what get a hunter killed."

With fists clenched, manicured nails dug into palms while Weiss maintained control of her emotions. She levelled her voice, trying her damnedest to keep up her facade of calm, but Ozpin's logic was the complete opposite of everything she had ever been taught about what a hunter was.

"If our duty is to protect the people, then how are we supposed to _not_ be selfless?"

"You have to be selfish _because_ of your duty to the people. If you die from a selfless act, Weiss, then who will be there to protect the people? Who will be there to have Ruby's back, so that she can protect the people? Even worse, if you try to save Ruby and end up dying with her, then it would only be a matter of time before Blake and Yang fell too, overwhelmed, and whatever you all were protecting crumbles. If one of us falls, we all risk falling. We have to be selfish, because it's the only way to maintain the greater safety of Remnant."

"No."

Ozpin lifted his mug for a sip a he waited for the heiress to go on.

"If I let Ruby die—If I _watched_ her die, and I could have done something… It would still ruin us." The headmaster kept his mug raised, hiding his mouth. "By your logic, any of us dying means all of us dying. If Ruby is about to be killed, and I can risk saving her, then either I succeed and we both live, or I fail and we all die. If I just stand by, we're all dead anyway. Being selfless is the only option."

"But wouldn't three of you retreating be better than two of you?"

"Four of us would be better." Weiss stood with conviction, shoulders squared as she held back a growl of frustration. Ozpin's cup merely revealed his smug grin when he lowered it.

"And isn't saving Ruby a selfish act, if the end goal is to save yourself?"

"... What—"

"—But, I could be mistaken; it wouldn't be the first time, after all." Beacon's headmaster turned away, his cane clacking against the tile floor as he headed back toward the exit of the engineering wing. "I look forward to seeing you prove me wrong, Miss Schnee."

She was still on edge. Had the suited man stayed, Weiss was certain she could have won the argument. Instead she was left off put by her victory strolling away with all the confidence in the world, as though he was debating with a toddler and simply amused enough that he no longer felt like continuing.

Selfish hunters? Those were the bandits and thieves who turned against their brethren. Those were the ones who sent soldiers to die in pointless wars. Those were the kinds who considered profit more important than the well being of their workers.

Weiss Schnee was _not_ going to be selfish.

The door behind her clicked as it was opened, a red cloak fluttering through into the nearly-deserted corridor. Unfortunately for the heiress, she wasn't away from the entrance, rather standing in front of it, and let out a high pitched "oomf" as she was hit in the back by the large wooden frame.

"Oh gosh, I'm so sorry… Weiss?" Ruby blinked at her subordinate, the colour draining from her cheeks. Her eyes were a mix of shock, confusion, and fear, until her brain fully caught up with her actions. She immediately jumped forward, putting a comforting, albeit shaky hand on her partner's shoulder. "Are you okay?"

Weiss stayed slightly bent forward, facing away from her leader as she held a hand over her mouth, cheeks flushed at the sound she'd just made. Instead the Atlesian nodded her head in response, taking a deep breath. Her aura had taken the brunt of the hit anyway.

"That's good. So, um, follow up question…" Weiss could feel Ruby's hand shake a little more as the girl paused. "What are you doing here?"

The young leader flinched away as her partner stiffened. _You're here to drop the course, aren't you, Schnee?_

"U-Uhh, never mind! Don't answer that question!" Ruby had begun to sweat, nervously waving her hands back and forth to the heiress' back. "Listen, I was thinking about the other day—And I know you always say it's dangerous when I think, heh—But I just wanted to say…"

 _All that talk about not being selfish, and yet you're running away from helping, from being the best teammate, to do what? Find something else you can do to help Ruby? That's exactly what Ozpin said, Schnee. That's not being the best teammate, that's being the selfish, spoiled princess you always—_

"... I'm sorry." Ruby continued after a long wait. Weiss broke out of her trance, standing straight up. Apparently Ruby had been waiting for some kind of reaction the entire time, since once the heiress moved, the redhead found the courage to continue.

"I shouldn't have yelled at you. I kind of—well, totally did push you into doing this even though you didn't want to do it, and then got mad when you didn't like it. That wasn't fair. I just—It looked like you were finally having some fun, and the smile you had when you finished your switch! I thought maybe you'd start getting into it, and we could spend the semester tinkering! Oh it would've been so great!

"But… yeah… I get it. I'm a huge weapon nerd. I figured since, you know, it's _Beacon_ and all, there would be a lot more people who like this stuff as much as me." Ruby frowned, her voice drooping. "No one is… It's really, really, _really_ cool stuff, and you're my partner, so I wanted to share it—share _something_ other than skirts—with you. I just, got my hopes up a little too high I guess…"

The white-haired girl basked in the silence that followed Ruby's apology. It was hard to keep her eyes from watering, to not sniffle despite her nose feeling a little runny. The voice inside her head rung, loud and clear. _Are you ready to be the best teammate now?_

Weiss peeked over her shoulder, noticing Ruby wasn't even looking at her anymore. Instead, the younger of the two was staring down at her boots. The heiress fully turned, taking a deep breath, and cracking a small smile when Ruby peeked up through her bangs.

"Apology accepted." Ruby smiled sadly, eyes starting to travel back down to the dirty tiles. "And I'm not dropping the course."

"You aren't!?" Ruby jumped, eyes widely staring at the heiress. "But, the tree, and the mumbling, and your box!"

Weiss' lips twitched, smile beginning to look forced. "Don't make me change my mind. Again."

The panic returned to Ruby's face, though it couldn't overpower the joy sparkling in her irises. "No no no it's fine, that's great!" She spoke, the Atlesian relaxing. "What made you change your mind, though?" The relaxation was short lived though.

"I—" Weiss hesitated, stomach tumbling. She tasted the words on her tongue first, rolling them around mentally. "I said I would be the best teammate," the heiress began slowly, growing more comfortable with her statement as she said it, "and the best teammate helps her leader however she can."

Ruby's face lit up, bobbing up and down as she bounced in place. "You won't regret this, Weiss!"

 _No, I won't._

* * *

 **A/N: Hello reader, and congratulations on reaching the end of the first arc! Hopefully by now I've laid enough groundwork that you can understand both Weiss and Ruby's personalities, as well as imagine how they would interact between scenes.**

 **And if you're reading this story as it updates, then I apologize for the wait. Writing was put on hold while I pushed through the end of the university year, took a much needed vacation, moved back out to the city to continue my job, and then moved again. It's been hectic, to say the least. Hopefully though, I can update reliably now.**

 **As always, all feedback and criticism is appreciated. What seems right? What feels wrong? How have your opinions of the characters shifted from the first chapter to now, if at all? Is anyone out of character?**

 _ **Notes:**_

 _ **06/02/2016 - Revision. Nothing plot-wise was altered, just improvements in writing and grammar, along with a number of minor mistakes and one hilariously accidental pun fixed. Heh... I want to 'Yang' out my hair over it...**_


	7. Chapter 7 — In which Blake is Curious

**Chapter 7 — In which Blake is Curious**

 _I regret everything._

Weiss groaned as her head hit the table, cushioned by the textbook beneath her. She was surrounded by them, piles of old scripts on various topics. The only similarity between the all the books was the promise of complete and utter boredom.

"Weiss? Don't leave me here alone, Weiss!" The heiress' partner whisper shouted, leaning over from her chair to place an arm on the cold girl's shoulder. She flinched when someone nearby shushed her.

They were in the library, an awe-inspiring hall if there ever was one. With a single corridor down the middle, the room was two columns of bookshelves leading to the extended wing. Each shelf acted as a barrier, towering over the students and requiring a ladder just to reach a quarter of the way up. So tall were they, that a second level ran along the two side walls of the building, allowing access to the texts on the highest shelves.

And the entire structure must have been a cathedral at some point, with vaulted ceilings three times as tall as any of the bookshelves, arches running up to support the weight, and massive glass panes with intricate metalwork woven into their frames. The natural light came in from every side, keeping the whole room bright no matter what time of day it was.

In all this magnificence, Weiss was nose-deep in her engineering books, trying to study for her upcoming written test. Ozpin was relentless, assigning readings from every text the school owned on the topic in preparation for examination at the end of the week. It was already Thursday, two weeks after the heiress steeled her resolve to continue the course, and every class had been a miniature workshop with some task to complete by the end of it.

The one piece placed between Weiss and a failing grade was Ruby, the younger redhead taking her place as a mentor to her partner. It was met with resistance, initially, as Weiss still felt as though she could accomplish the course on her own, but after the first task assigned on the Monday following, and the failure it was graded as, the Atlesian asked her leader for some guidance.

It was one thing to be prideful, another to fail because of it. But that didn't mean Weiss had to enjoy being the tutored one.

"I can't go on. If I have to read about reaction forces for one more page…"

"But that's the basis for, like, everything! Wait—are you still on chapter one?"

"I'm re-reading it!" Weiss squawked indignantly, immediately being shushed by the same person as before. A look to the right revealed some large tiger faunus glaring angrily at the red and white pair.

"Well, do you at least understand the friction coefficient?"

"Yes. Maybe? Aren't there two types of friction? Static and kinetic?"

"Yes!" Ruby clapped, standing. "Great! You'll do fine, Weiss."

The young, caped girl stood, sliding one of her own history books into a backpack before slinging the bag over her shoulder. "I gotta get going to my leadership lecture. Make sure to go over drag again, it's super important." Ruby said as she gave her partner one last smile, heading out from between the two massive bookshelves.

Weiss watched her partner go, before remembering as an afterthought to actually say something. She stood, speaking a little louder than appropriate in the building. "Have fun!"

Several shushes came this time, the tiger faunus going as far as to grunt and hit his book against his table. Ruby just waved a hand back from around the wall to acknowledge the well wishes.

The heiress sat back down—quietly, to avoid further embarrassment—and turned to the back of her book. The glossary was bound to be faster than reading several paragraphs about the discovery of _whatever._ The heiress could have sworn half her readings were just physicists ego boosting their predecessors.

" _'_ _Have fun?'_ That doesn't sound like the Weiss Schnee I know." a velvety smooth voice danced through the air, hints of sarcasm in the monotone.

Weiss jumped, the action her only way of keeping her heart in her chest. "Dust, Blake! Don't sneak up on me like that."

The raven-haired faunus pushed off the wall behind the heiress, somehow managing to hide in the only shadow the entire room housed.

"Sorry, just practicing." Blake chuckled, sounding the least bit sorry. She slid out the chair Ruby was in previously from under the table, sitting down and taking an interest in the various technical books scattered about.

"If you must know, I'm trying to be less… cold, with the people around me."

"Oh, so I'm not the only one getting special treatment now?" The ex-terrorist smiled disarmingly. When Weiss gave a huff, her teammate cut her some slack. "That's pretty respectable of you."

Thank you."

"So, what are you working on?" Blake spoke softly, her rich voice blending in with the library setting. "Yang and I have hardly seen you—either of you—for two weeks. You and Ruby have practically been attached at the hip."

"She's been..." The Schnee hesitated, "we've been studying together. I'm working on mechanics, she's reading up on history." Weiss didn't want to show weakness, especially not to the faunus; it was hard enough accepting help from Ruby.

"Just studying?"

One of Weiss' eyebrows creeped up her head. She gestured to the mess sprawling across the entire table. "Yes? Does it look like we're doing anything else?"

"Well, I mean it _is_ Ruby you're working with. The same Ruby that reads comic books with Jaune, or doodles in class. Not to mention, she has Yang as a role model, and between you and I, I wouldn't call Yang's habits _academic_." Blake spoke in a practiced tone, no doubt used to the etiquette of a public library. Her ability to speak so low without changing into a whisper was a skill Weiss felt envious of. "You can't blame me for thinking she might wear off on you."

"She's..." The heiress paused, face scrunching. She clicked her teeth together to bar her tongue as her thoughts were bombarded with a list of memories. When she found Ruby asleep on top of her notes after they fought, or when she spent an entire day in the courtyard, hiding in a tree to study for her Grimm studies course. The days Ruby relieved Ren of his torture of sparring with Nora, taking on the barbarian of a fighter for hours on end, each round improving another weakness in her fighting style, and the moments she spent so engrossed in her metalwork and maintenance of Crescent Rose that the world didn't even exist around her.

"She's more hardworking than you give her credit for." Weiss tried again, more comfortable with the sentence than her initial repulsion at the idea of the red reaper rubbing off on her.

"Than _I_ give her?"

Okay, not _that_ comfortable. "Than we give her credit for," the Schnee corrected. "She's trying her best to, well, _aid_ me in my studies." Another memory flashed to the forefront of Weiss' mind, of two weeks ago when Ruby had literally kicked open the door to their shared room, unable to see past the stack of engineering books she was barely keeping from toppling out of her arms. How such thin, weak-looking limbs could swing around that massive scythe of hers so gracefully was beyond the heiress.

"Mhm," Blake nodded sagely, probably remembering her own moments with their leader. Weiss wasn't the only one to catch the younger girl's attention in the previous semester.

"And what the course she's helping you with?" caution was suddenly thick on the faunus' words. She always seemed mellow to anyone first meeting the teenager, level headed and methodical, but ever since last semester, Weiss began noticing how much emotion was hidden in the ex-terrorist's tone.

"It could be better." Weiss bit her lip gently, knowing well all her teammates saw her marks. Part of being on a team meant they had access to each other's academics, and it wasn't until now that the heiress saw issues with the system. "I'm starting to get the hang of it, I think. And Ozpin is going easy on me this week. He actually gave me a pass on one of my tasks."

"Oh?" Blake smiled, easing back into her chair. The chair that creaked if Ruby so much as twitched, yet remained silent under the espionage specialist. "What changed?"

"Honestly? I don't really know. When I talked to Ozpin about grading, he gave me vague answers about 'passion' and such. Whatever grading scheme he's using, it's all in his head. I'm just trying to get a grip on the subject matter."

The pale girl looked back down at her textbook, a frown marring her face as she scanned over the words written for the eightieth time.

"Passion? Wait, so in order to pass the course, you just have to be enthusiastic?" Blake questioned, hair cascading as her head tilted.

"Not quite. More like you have to actually care about the subject, but how is he supposed to know whether I care or not?"

"Is your work as good as everyone else's?"

Weiss chewed on the inside of her cheek, remembering her first assignment. "Maybe not always, but I still try!"

"And you do care, right? About the course, I mean."

The Schnee looked up from her book, not caring to learn about torque again. "I care about passing, and about being useful to the team."

"But not the material?"

Weiss remained silent.

"What's even so bad about it? Ruby seems pretty enthralled."

"It's just so… menial!" The heiress closed the text, fully turning in her chair to address her teammate as one foot stomped on the ground. "The labour is long and exhaustive, the information is only really usable in the subject itself, and—"

"—I know, I know, I've heard the rant before." The faunus rolled her eyes, holding her hands up in mock surrender as she cut off Weiss. "But the work is a discipline, and the information isn't as useless as you seem to think; besides, you've done sillier things. How often does swordplay carry on into anything other than fighting?"

"Fencing is different. It trains your body, your mind, your focus, _and_ it gives you a tool needed for survival against Grimm."

"So I guess when your weapon breaks down, that's not critical to surviving? I didn't know you had a spare Myrtenaster."

Blake never rose her voice as she countered. Instead, it stayed soft, yet firm. It was aggravating to the young Schnee, not because of the lecturing, knowing tone, but because she couldn't just get angry and pull the topic away from an argument she'd lose.

And she knew she'd lose. She just didn't want to admit it.

"Can we talk about something else?" The words sounded like a plea, even to Weiss, but if Blake noticed the various emotions that seeped into the heiress' request, she didn't show it.

"Yang burned a batch of cupcakes."

"Really?"

"And the honey sauce."

"Well that one is easy to overdo."

"And the butter meant to be mixed in with the honey." The faunus smirked as a giggle escaped Weiss. "The sauce wasn't even meant to be heated. I think she's on track to burning water, at this point." The Schnee broke into a fit of laughter, unable to hold back any longer. This time Blake joined her, letting out a velvety chuckle at joke.

"How are you two still passing?" Weiss managed to get out between breaths.

"I _might_ be making a second batch of everything alone. Luckily Yang has been too scared to look at the marks, so hopefully I can keep this up unnoticed."

"What happened to trusting your teammates?"

"I trust her to burn everything she touches, does that count?" Blake gave a cocky grin as she rebuked, confident in her point.

Weiss didn't want to admit she'd probably do the same. "I can see your reasoning." she spoke instead.

"I do trust her, though. Burnt or not, Yang's doing her best. Every time she messes something up, she assures me it won't happen the next time."

"But she does, doesn't she?"

"Yeah. But sometimes, during our free time, I'll find her in the classroom covered in batter and cursing at the oven."

"Huh…" Weiss stayed still, imagining the blonde with chocolate chips melted into her hair. No matter how ridiculous, the image was more admirable than funny. The smooth, glossy paper of the heiress' textbook stuck to her fingers.

"Well," Blake yawned, one hand holding her elbow as the other reached for the sky. "I'm going to get some dinner before the tuna is wiped out. You hungry?"

The pages moved with the white-haired girl as she lifted her arms, looking up at her now standing teammate.

"I'll pass, but thank you. I think I'm going to study for a little while longer."

"Suit yourself." Blake walked out of the bookshelf corridor the two were in, padding away silently.

 _Now then,_ Weiss thought, _back to… Actuators?_

The sound of the Schnee's head thumping against soft paper reverberated through the library, the gruff "hmph" of a tiger faunus from the other end of the building its only response.

She peeked an eye open, browsing over the various bland titles Ruby left dumped all over the table. They bored her to tears.

 _Hmm? What's this?_ One book caught the Schnee's eye, a particular article she never noticed before, that her leader neglected to mention when all the texts were originally brought.

Reaching out tentatively, she pulled the book closer. The title got her to lean back into her chair, one hand lightly grazing the front cover's white engravings on an otherwise unmarked black book.

 _Applications of Dust in Forging?_

* * *

 **A/N: Hello reader. I'm so happy you've read this far, because this is now beyond the introductory arc, and into the throngs of exploring Weiss' day-to-day life in Beacon. All her growth, all the little things that could have changed the heiress and turned her into the incredibly supportive girl that vehemently defends Yang's innocence and goes for coffee/tea with Blake that we watch her become through volumes 2 and 3. As always, feedback is not just welcome, but encouraged.**

 **I try to make these notes personal to you, reader, but there's a flaw in doing so. I'm addressing you, but I'm also addressing the others who read this story at the same time, and you may not be reading this at the same time as them, or perhaps you only just started Cold Smithing recently. Maybe I've already finished writing, and you're playing catch up a year after the last chapter is published. I can't very well apologize to you for a hiatus, because if you started reading after it ended, then you're just reading a little piece of irrelevant history that's only relevant to the other readers.**

 **And that's just unfair, because I'm trying to speak to you as well. For that reason, I can't talk about hiatuses, life struggles, or anything of the sort because they may not be relevant to you. However, if you would like to inquire about it, please feel free to send me a message. Nothing brightens my day more than a conversation with a fellow fan.**


	8. Chapter 8 — In Which Blake is Persistent

**Chapter 8 — In Which Blake is Persistent**

With a flick of the wrist, Myrtenaster tore through yet another beast. She panted, one knee hitting the ground, while Ruby and Velvet continued to slaughter the enemies ahead of her.

She was lagging behind, and she knew it, but there was no way the heiress' pride would let them get the best of her. There were only a couple enemies remaining in the area, and though her arm was sore—hand cramping and forehead sweating—she was determined to finish what she started.

Another horror crept into sight, its haunches pulling up in preparation for a jump, but the huntress was ready. She ducked, rolling onto her right shoulder under the creature while her left hand brought about her rapier. A trickle of blood oozed from its stomach, but otherwise the thing was unharmed.

"Che." Weiss pushed against the ground, getting up into a proper stance. The creature began circling her, taking its time, while the white-haired fencer caught her breath. She couldn't wait forever though. The last enemy would be upon her soon enough, and ensuring a one-on-one battle was crucial to her victory.

"Finished!" A voice—Ruby's—cut through the forest, shaking Weiss' focus momentarily. The beast took its chance and dashed forward, throwing a clawed hand out towards its opponent's neck, but with a flash of silver the strike was redirected into her shoulder, the Schnee's aura taking the hit. She followed the now off-balance nightmare and brought Myrtenaster down, impaling it in the neck.

It struggled, letting out a gurgle of a cry, and then fell limp.

 _One left… Only one left, and I'm free._ Weiss thought to herself, looking about the clearing. Any second her final opponent would step forward, like none of the _things_ she fought before.

"Done!" Another student yelled out, though she couldn't distinguish whose voice it belonged to. Another cry of victory followed, and another, as each mighty demon fell.

A twig snapping alerted Weiss to another presence behind her. She twisted her neck, looking over her shoulder before she could turn her whole body to spot the sound. She thought she was ready, she believed she could complete this sick, twisted test.

But the behemoth of a Grimm stepped out of the forest wall, three times her height and weighing more than a bullhead.

The student's face scrunched as she spoke to no one in particular. "You're sick, Ozpin."

"I've completed my test!" Velvet's voice carried through the trees, the starting gun to Weiss' last fight as her opponent let out a guttural roar.

It charged forward, each step shaking the world beneath it, but this was what Weiss had trained for. This was why she studied so diligently. With a smile, the Schnee summoned a myriad of glyphs around the unknown Grimm. From one to the next, she shot between them like launch pads, slashing at the beast. Each flick of her wrist put another wound into the creature as it struggled to fight back.

It swung an arm around, Weiss narrowly avoiding the attack as she flew to her last glyph. It was all she had left, all she had strength remaining for, all her remaining dust. And so, with a mighty leap, the huntress flew across the opening with Myrtenaster in hand, driving the weapon into the last horror's back.

"Done!" Weiss shouted from her table in the engineering workshop at Beacon. She flourished her papers as the bell rang on Ozpin's desk, signalling the end of the test. The headmaster merely stared back, one eyebrow raised ever so slightly.

She'd been the last to finish, everyone else fiddling with their pens or whispering to one another. That didn't matter though, _I finished._

"Congratulations, Weiss." Velvet spoke from down along the table, a bouncing Ruby between them as she smiled—beamed—at her partner.

"You did it!" Ruby shouted with all the excitement of a puppy first discovering snow. She made a move to leap at the heiress, but was stopped by her teammate's palm against her forehead.

"Yes, quite well timed, Miss Schnee," Ozpin turned his attention back to the rest of the class, Weiss turning away in an attempt to hide the redness of her embarrassed face from view. "Now, if you could all turn in your papers, you're free to go."

The students lined up in front of their professor's desk, each holding their stack of paper. It seemed the class fell into a comfortable rut, with the first years at the start, team CRDL in the middle, Velvet stuck behind them, then Ruby and Weiss taking up the rear. Ever since the first assignment was handed in, the class of ten remained in their ordered cliques.

When Weiss reached the desk the rest of the students had already left, with the exception of Ruby, who remained by the door out of earshot. She was confident in her test, feeling as though she'd gotten the best of each and every question, but her nerves betrayed her nonetheless. With a shaking hand, the heiress handed her paper to Ozpin, who immediately flipped to the final page.

He looked at the topic of the final paragraph, a question which merely asked to explain a topic of interest relating to mechanics. Weiss turned away, beginning to take a step towards her partner, when Ozpin's voice froze her in place.

" _Applications of Dust in Forging_ , Miss Schnee?" He stared at her over the rims of his glasses, eyes unreadable as his hands held her paper perfectly still. "I don't remember assigning any sections in the texts relating to this subject."

Weiss swallowed, wetting her dry throat as she composed herself. "I happened upon it while studying in the library last night. It caught my attention."

"Really now?" The headmaster's lips curved up the tiniest bit as he settled the papers down. "Then I look forward to reading your thoughts on it tonight."

"Is that all, sir?"

"That is all, Miss Schnee. You may leave now."

Ruby held the door open as her partner approached, still smiling like an idiot.

"So? How was it?" the young leader asked as Weiss approached. Her teammate walked past her silently through the open door, turning to go down the hallway back to their dorms.

"Simple tests like this are nothing to a Schnee." the girl made a 'hmph' sound as she crossed her arms, waiting for Ruby to join her outside of the classroom. Her face cracked at Ruby's shocked expression, a grin peeking out from behind her emotional mask. "But I think I did well."

"Aaaand?" Ruby prodded.

" _And thank you, Ruby,_ for all the help with studying. Now can we please go to our room? I'm exhausted."

"Any time!" Ruby's face regained its cheery disposition as she began walking down the hallway. Weiss followed a step behind, trying to control her smile as best she could.

 _I did it!_

* * *

 _I really did it!_

Weiss stared at her scroll the following morning, awoken by the quiet beeping of her notification sound. Apparently Ozpin had been busy last night marking, because on the screen was her grade on the test as well as her new overall grade in the class.

87% on the test.

54% in the class.

She was finally passing.

After her initial failure, and the few that followed it, her failing grade felt like an insurmountable obstacle.

Until now.

It was ridiculous, really, for a Schnee to be celebrating a barely passing grade. If her father heard any of her marks dropped below near-perfect, he'd have lost his mind. And yet it felt so satisfying, to accomplish what she'd set out to do. To dust with Ozpin's logic, she could do this for her teammates.

 _I_ am _the best teammate._

A rustle of sheets to the right let Weiss know she wasn't the only one awake so early on a Saturday morning. With a cursory glance, she found her eyes locked with amber orbs staring back at her.

"Careful, Weiss, your smile could scare children." Blake spoke softly across the room, followed by an almost imperceptible smirk at her friend's appalled reaction. She sat up, reaching one hand towards the bunk above her. "So what's got you in such a good mood at seven in the morning?"

"I should ask you the same thing." With a subtle move of her arm, Weiss' scroll was hidden behind her leg. "The last time I saw you look happy this early was when the cafeteria had a special on tuna sandwiches."

"Wha—"

"She's got you there." Locks of blonde hair tumbled into Blake's view as her partner rolled over above her, mumbling her agreement. It was followed by a loud yawn and a smacking of lips as Yang's eyes remained closed, unwilling to face the day.

Blake's bow drooped, ears betraying her much like her partner had. "I'm just more of a night person, that's all. And what's wrong with me sharing my teammate's good mood?"

"Weiss cream? In a good mood?" The brawler's eyes shot open, smiling wide as she looked around. "Oh sweet, a lucid dream!"

With a clipped tone betraying her familiarity with the situation, the heiress turned out of her bed and began walking to the bathroom. "Not a dream, keep your underwear on please."

"Aww…"

A few showers and the waking of Ruby later, the team was off to breakfast. Beacon had many amenities, including practice stages, a full gymnasium, workshops, laboratories, the library, a miniature hospital, student lounges, kitchens, recreational sports leagues, on-call therapy, a dog-friendly café, three coffee shops and a spa. Still, there was no greater joy than the cafeteria on a Saturday, when the staff was given freedom to cook outside of the set dietary menu and prepared every delicacy known to Remnant.

Weiss took a plate of Eggs Benedict from the hands of a smiling cook, returning the gesture with a nod of her own. Her leader, meanwhile, was chatting animatedly around a plate stacked with pancakes with one of the staff members. Behind them, the heiress could hear the snickering of their blonde teammate as she nudged Blake, mumbling about the tuna sandwich display and Blake's out-of-place morning mood.

They sat down together, some more excited to begin than others, at a table in the middle of the dining area, the bustle of fellow hungry students all around them. Many were chatting excitedly about their weekend plans, others about their workload, and then there was her team…

"I'm telling you, a King Taijitu could definitely take down a giant Nevermore!"

"How? They can't fly! A Nevermore could just rain feathers down until the sun stopped shining."

"Maybe it could, like, coil up its body and _spring_ into the air?"

"King Taijitu weigh too much, so they wouldn't jump very high vertically." A tray clacked down against the table as Ren sat down across from them, his calm voice cutting into the conversation. "But, they have been known to stand up on one head in dire situations, which would make them tall enough to take out bullheads."

"Ha! See? Taijitu all the way!" Yang threw a thumb's up at the only male, who was soon joined by the rest of his team.

The table devolved into wild conversation as each member of JNPR engaged with one of the girls of RWBY. Nora's plate was surprisingly empty, but by the time anyone noticed her plan, she'd already stolen half of the scarlet reaper's pancakes.

Forks clattered, knives scratched, and laughter echoed. Everything around the Schnee seemed brighter, like the sun shining through the floor to ceiling windows was aimed directly at her.

"So, Weiss, I heard you and Ruby had a test yesterday?" Pyrrha turned toward the partners, her eyes holding nothing but friendly curiosity as she smiled politely.

The young leader responded before Weiss could, talking around a mouthful of pancakes. "Yeah! It waf in Rudimendary Mekhanicf."

She gulped, Pyrrha's polite smile quirking up along with Weiss' eyebrow.

"Just a unit test on the basics, nothing too difficult. You shoulda seen Weiss though! She was completely in the zone all the way up to the bell." Another mouthful of pancakes, though Ruby thankfully chewed enough to tuck the remains into her cheek before continuing. "She didn't even notice the rest of the class staring at her! Ozpin too! You should have seen his face when when Weiss—"

"Okay, I think that's enough Ruby—"

"Shouted _right_ before the bell rang that she finished."

The heiress stared down her leader, Ruby finally beginning to look sheepish as hindsight caught up. Her look was less impactful though as the champion fighter and traitor hid her light giggle behind one hand. They both apologized, and Weiss sighed because if the smirk Yang wore down the table was anything to judge by, the damage was already done.

"Well, I'm sure you did wonderful, Weiss." Pyrrha's reassurance was nice, but the girl in question was already grinning ear to ear in her mind. Dust forbid she broke her calm composure.

So instead, the Schnee nodded in thanks, speaking up before the red caped fiend could again. "Yes, I'm sure I did too. Thank you, Pyrrha."

"Oh! Why don't we check right now?" Weiss' scarred eye twitched as Ruby fumbled for her scroll, and the champion noticed immediately. "Oz marked them last night, but I didn't get a chance to look yet."

"Um, how did you do then, Ruby?" Bless Pyrrha, the saint.

"I think I got a couple wrong, but that doesn't really matter."

Weiss' eye twitched again, more violently. _Yep. 98% technically is 'a couple' off._

"Here it is!" The snow white huntress shot her arm out with all the speed of a well trained fencer, but missed the communication device in her partner's hands by a fraction as Ruby instinctively lifted her hands out of the way of what was usually Yang's course of action. "Wow, Weiss! 87%!? That's incredible! I guess all that studying with me paid off."

The whole table had gone quiet to watch the antics of their most entertaining duo, but suddenly it was full of cheers and congratulations as they all pushed to show their friend their support. Nora leaned forward to clap a hand on Weiss' shoulder, Ren and Pyrrha nodded, Yang threw a thumbs up, Jaune smiled and lifted his glass to a toast no one else noticed, and even Blake was smiling.

Though her tuna sandwich had a fresh bite out of it, so Belladonna may have been feeling a little influenced.

But of all of them, their red-headed leader knew what that mark fully entailed, and she seemed fully aware of the new passing grade if her toothy, face-splitting smile was anything to tell by. She threw her arms around the cold princess, and was immediately pushed off. Her smile didn't waver.

Once everyone began quieting again, Ruby took the initiative and raised her own glass of milk to a toast. "We should celebrate this and go to Vale! Who's with me?"

The eerie silence that the girl was met with threw a small wrench in her plan.

"Sorry, Ruby," Nora spoke up first, scratching the back of her head sheepishly, "I _may_ have ended up getting detention for falling asleep in Glynda's last lecture. By the way, if she asks, none of you saw me here."

Ruby looked betrayed, but it only got worse when Yang started talking next. "I uh, promised Ren I'd finally spar with him since neither of us have any assignments due soon. Sorry, sis!"

"Yeah…" Jaune's trailing off wasn't promising. "Pyrrha and I kinda have a sparring session too. We had to put off last night's, so we're making up for it today."

"Sorry," Pyrrha waved apologetically.

The reaper turned to Blake, the only one remaining, with desperate puppy dog eyes. "Blake? Surely you can come out to Vale with us, right?"

"..."

The whole table started at the raven-haired girl expectantly.

"... I'm busy."

Weiss deflated. She didn't want to brag about her marks, but once they were out and everyone was cheering her on, she'd have been lying if she said she didn't feel just a little disappointed that it wouldn't continue.

"Well, _I_ won't leave my friend hanging when there's celebrating to be done."

"Ruby," the heiress raised her voice, trying to stop her hidden smile, "don't you have a history paper due Monday?"

"That's what Sundays are for!" The smile broke through, just a little, and Weiss pulled back the shoulders she hadn't realize she was slouching. Ruby beamed down at her, cogs turning behind her eyes as the mastermind tactician of their team began planning their day. "You ready to go?"

"If you insist." She didn't need to though.

* * *

The pair walked down some random street of Vale's main shopping district. All around them were the telltale digital lights and signs advertising various clothing stores, dust shops, accessories, sports equipment, and a slew of other businesses for the middle class. It was… cute, Weiss supposed. The first time she'd visited the shopping district with the rest of team RWBY, she was shocked and appalled that they'd even dare drag her into the lower class stores. Now though, she'd grown accustomed to them.

Sure, she didn't shop at the same stores as their friend Coco as often, but she did at least manage to find something cute every once in awhile. A diamond in the rough.

The store Ruby was leading her into, though, was anything but a diamond.

"'ACME Inc.?' Really?" The heiress was anything but impressed. "You wanted to come out and celebrate _my_ achievement by going to a _weapons_ store?"

Ruby blushed, embarrassed. "Ehehe, I may have wanted to run an errand or two as well. Oh come on, don't give me that look! It was on the way!" Weiss kept giving her 'that look.' "I promise you'll like—No, wait, umm, I promise you won't hate it?"

With one arm crossed, the other leaning on it with a hand pressed to her forehead, the Atlesian let out a long, exaggerated sigh. She didn't dare look at the puppy eyes Ruby was bound to be making, instead trying to tie her tongue in a knot.

 _She's at least making the effort, Schnee. Be the best teammate, humour her for a little._

The little voice in the back of her head seemed to be a lot less harsh lately, Weiss mused. It was a surprisingly welcome change to her attitude, and so feeling renewed energy to suffer through whatever was beyond the glass doorway to the parts store, the huntress-in-training waved her hand at the door. "After you."

"Ohhh, thank you, Weiss! C'mon, you won't regret it. I'll walk you through all the parts that I used to build Crescent Rose."

"I'm regretting it already—Hey!" The Schnee stumbled a step as Ruby gave her a playful shove, running into the store before she could suffer repercussions. "Get back here, Ruby Rose!" With a pointed hand, Weiss chased after into the surprisingly large shop.

But the young leader grabbed the heiress' soft hand, dragging her toward a rack of rotating mechanisms before she could say anything. Weiss swallowed back her discomfort, pulling her hand away from Ruby's as soon as they stopped.

"Because the room is so small in the shaft," Ruby began, "I can't use a lot of motors to handle the short rotations. Instead, I use a bunch of hinges with limited rotations. By interlocking them and running a thin steel cable through it all, I can get away with just having one motor near the center where it rotates to fully open my baby. There's actually a second motor with a different cable tied to the shaft, which pulls the blade back into its war scythe form, but the stress on the cable and the motor is really harsh, so if I use it for too long the parts could break."

Weiss blinked.

"And over here," the junior continued on without breathing, walking over a couple steps, "are some of the components I use for the main extension and bullet chamber. Crescent Rose is both semi-automatic and pump action. Since the semi-automatic mode can only handle my normal rounds, so I have to use the pump for different shaped dust rounds. So I have this sliding chamber," the girl held up one of the metal pieces, one indistinguishable from the rest to her partner, "the 'ESBC-320.' It's surprisingly durable for its price, but it's an older model, and the open, do-it-yourself circuitry makes it harder to use for beginners. Luckily, I'm no beginner."

Weiss blinked again. She hummed in response, satisfying Ruby, but turned her attention instead to the rest of the store. It was aisle upon aisle of bins full of identical objects, with little to no variation from the components around them.

She felt lost. Completely out of her element. Ruby continued on rambling about weapon parts, but he heiress had stopped listening. She couldn't follow along anyway. It was aggravating, feeling so stupid and out of place in the store. Someone of her upbringing didn't even belong there, surrounded by the smell of steel and oil.

Over time, Weiss began closing off her body. She crossed her arms, holding her elbows as her foot began tapping away on the concrete floor. Finally, the Schnee was brought out of her reverie a few minutes later when her partner touched her arm, getting her attention.

Ruby's brows were furrowed slightly, her smile looking anxious. "Is this… too much?"

"No, I suppose not." Weiss' tone betrayed her, as she sounded exasperated.

"Okay, well, I just need to buy these," Ruby said as she held up a small bag, "and then we can go on to our next stop."

The young reaper walked off toward the counter, one arm swinging, as the heiress continued standing in her place close to the door. There was a nice-looking boutique across the street she so badly wanted to be in instead of where she was, and felt rather tempted to walk out and start window shopping while Ruby finished her purchase.

That is, until the sound of a disgruntled shopkeeper reached her ears.

"Eight-seventy lien, that's final."

"These parts aren't even worth half that! The prices add up to three-fifty!"

"Those are for used, these models are new."

"New? You can see the wear on them with a naked eye!"

"Bah, what do you know about weapon parts, girly?"

The two's fight was stopped as Weiss' hand slammed down on the counter. Her countenance was the epitome of calm, but the ice in her voice was sharp enough to cut steel. "And why, good sir, do you believe her incapable of knowing about your goods?"

The fat, old man looked on in disbelief, though what was—probably—years of experience kicked in soon after. He pulled back his shoulders, standing to full height so that he could tower over the two teenage girls. "She doesn't look strong enough to lift something heavy enough to need these models. Either she doesn't know what she's buying, or is too stupid to use them."

The Schnee snatched Ruby's arm before she could pull out Crescent Rose and show just how _little_ she knew. The last time their team had made a ruckus in Vale, Miss Goodwitch had been very clear about the laws surrounding hunters and huntresses unsheathing their weapons in the city. The times of emergency were insufferable, but legal. This, however, would have been an easy fine and detention with Nora.

"Well, then let me inform you on just who you're speaking down to," Weiss began explaining. "This is Ruby Rose, huntress-in-training at Beacon, child prodigy, and leader of team RWBY. She's also our mechanic, top of the class, and more skilled with these parts than any small-time shopkeeper in the middle class shopping district."

"Ha," the man barked, entertained. "As if I'd believe that. She doesn't even look old enough to get _into_ Beacon, let alone lead. What's next, you'll tell me you're some Atlesian princess?"

"Umm… heiress, actually…" Ruby's voice sounded so timid and quiet, it was almost unheard.

 _Almost._ But the obnoxious laughter booming from across the counter proved just how well sound travelled in the otherwise quiet store. "Ah, aha… Whew. An heiress? In the _middle class_ shopping district? Haha, oh, please, you're more desperate than you look."

Weiss' teeth gnashed together, and her hand instinctively shot down the the pocket in her combat skirt containing her wallet. It was futile, since her father had cut her off the previous year. All the money she had was what she could make off of Beacon's missions, as well as a small living fund supplemented by her dear sister Winter. It was enough to cover the bare minimum, and the occasional trip like today, but nowhere near enough to be throwing around, buying her way out of any problem she came across.

She'd given that privilege.

The fat man finally caught his breath, standing back up after having bent over laughing. His heavy steps sounded as though they'd fall through the creaky wooden floor as he began walking away, heading for the back room. The remains of his mirth remained as he said, "you've wasted enough of my time. If you can't buy anything, then get out of my store. I've got work to do."

A devilish smirk overtook the angered heiress' face as a light bulb flickered to life in her mind. "Wait," she nearly shouted, "I can prove I'm not lying."

"Weiss, what are you doing!?" Ruby whisper-yelled to deaf ears. Instead, the store's owner seemed amused again.

"Oh? And how do you plan on doing that?"

Weiss' eyes flickered to the back room, spotting the hunk of machinery sitting on a table. It looked worn out and partially dismantled. It was everything she'd hoped to find, and only confirmed her suspicions. "If my friend can fix whatever it is you're working on, you sell her the parts at used price."

The man looked at her incredulously, then toward the younger girl. "If she can fix it, Princess, I'll give her the parts for free."

"I don't know if I can do this," Ruby said under her breath to her partner, only to have her cape pulled until her ear was leaned into the Weiss' face.

"Don't be ridiculous, you could fix that hunk of junk in your sleep. Why don't you show this civilian just what kind of 'girly' he's dealing with?"

A determined nod, and then rose petals exploded past the store owner into the back room as the mechanic immediately went to work. The other two watched her go, until the man turned back to Weiss. He spoke with an arrogance that came with age. "I hope you're ready for the consequences of losing, girly. I'm going to enjoy my prize."

The heiress mere sneered at the disgusting pig, unwilling to dignify his words with her imagination. "And what makes you so sure she can't fix it?"

"I don't know who you think you are, but no one can fix the mess that thing's in. I've already spent the past two weeks on that DXL-4870 quad-injector combustion—"

"Done!" Ruby's cheer was followed by the telltale sound of the engine revving, not only fixed but hooked up to the dummy transmission.

Before the shopkeeper could argue, or even wipe the dumb look off his face, Weiss swiped the parts off the countertop. "Pleasure doing business with you. I hope next time you'll treat us _ladies_ with a little more respect."

"Hey, wait up, Weiss!" Ruby dashed after her partner, jumping over the countertop and shooting toward the door as its bell jingled with Weiss' exit. She didn't have to go much further, though, as her teammate was standing just outside, arms at full extension as she immediately dropped their latest 'purchase' into her leader's hands.

"Umm, Weiss… Tha—"

"Oh no, no you don't," the white haired teen abruptly cut off her friend, "I needed to blow off some steam. Not to mention, his behaviour was a disgrace to the people of Vale. I wasn't about to stand around listening to such… misogyny." The last word fell off her tongue, rather than rolled, her face looking as if speaking it left a sour taste in her mouth. "He got his just desserts, you were merely the pawn used to teach him a lesson."

"Uh huh?" Ruby said with a cheeky grin. She didn't sound at all as if she bought it. The behaviour used to be so foreign to her, but after over a year and a half of being around the heiress, especially the current semester, she was beginning to catch on. "Well, I still want to thank you."

"If you're so heart set on showing me gratitude," Weiss began, her devious smile returning, "then you can take me to a clothing store to celebrate _my_ passing grade—Like, say, the one across the street?"

The reaper deflated, no longer grateful as her other plans were forcefully tossed out the window. She groaned. "So soon?"

"The fewer minutes we waste out here, the better."

* * *

"Welcome to Vale End, where good fashion is the message we send," a clerk in the fashion boutique singsonged, looking up from the racks to see who caused the sound of the door chime playing. The two looked back at her, though Ruby soon lost interest and began eyeing a mannequin.

But Weiss kept her attention on the sales representative, well mannered enough to await the full introduction. She was a pixie cut blonde, an inch taller in flats than the heiress, with glowing white skin and a thin body lacking the typical muscle definition of anyone from Beacon, clearly marking her as a civilian. Her long dress pants hugged her hips while a barely tucked in dress shirt with rolled up sleeves and a couple buttons undone revealed her dark brown tank top, like a supermodel on break. The look was finished with a light speckling of freckles.

The girl winked, and Weiss scoffed. Apparently the sales representative thought she was captivated and most likely assumed an easy sale would follow, if her cocky, arrogant, too friendly grin was to be read.

The heiress made to turn away and see what had caught her partner's attention, but was forced to pay attention again to the worker as her voice danced through the room once more.

"Is there anything I can help you with?" The clerk asked innocently, her tone anything but as she swayed toward the entrance, or more specifically, Weiss.

The huntress-in-training stared plainly, her practiced ease of a cold shoulder on full display. "No, we'll be fine. I'll call for you I need anything."

If the typical reaction was for the other to frown and grumble as they stormed away, then Weiss was sorely disappointed. Instead, the clerk's smile only grew—eyes predatory—as she took a step closer, one hand held out. It wasn't for a handshake, rather it was meant to let the heiress place her hand in the clerk's for a kiss, an action rarely found outside the upper society of Atlas.

"Then I'll be prepared to service you, miss…?"

"... Schnee," the white-haired girl coughed out at the prompt, taken aback by the unexpected _commoner's_ behaviour. She finally placed her hand in the waiting representative's, blushing in embarrassment.

It turned worse when the girl—woman?—pulled the hand up as she leaned forward, planting a delicate kiss to Weiss' knuckles before speaking again. "Miss Schnee. My name is Daffodil, but _you_ can call me Daphne. I hope you enjoy browsing our inventory."

Another blasted wink, and then _Daphne_ was off, probably back to folding shirts and pants for minimum wage. Weiss, however, didn't continue watching long enough to confirm the action. As soon as the clerk had turned around, hips rocking back and forth with all the subtlety of a peacock in heat, the Schnee had immediately turned to Ruby, trying to refocus on the task at hand.

The mirror behind her partner revealed her face to be the same colour as her teammate's name.

Weiss let out a low growl, clenching her teeth as she brought her emotions back under control. Her face cooled, and within moments she was back to her calm facade people knew and admired.

"How do you think this would look," Ruby called out, thankfully oblivious to what had just transpired as she stayed transfixed on the mannequin, "could I pull something like this off?"

The display was of a 'woman' in a black duffle coat with shining silver accents, a rich red scarf around its neck and a layered skirt to match. Opening up the surprisingly light fall coat revealed a cute—though plain—high neck top.

"It's… in your colours, at least?" Weiss answered noncommittally, humming in thought.

"Right!? And the first thing I found! Perfect, done, my shopping is finished. I guess we don't need to be in these stores anymore." Ruby rushed forward, grabbing whatever size the top of the pile in front of the mannequin was and holding it against her chest. She was smiling so brightly, so victoriously, that her partner could only feel a small amount of sadistic pleasure in crushing the hope in her eyes.

"No," Weiss said, watching her handiwork begin as the smile broke. "Ignoring the fact that this shopping trip is for _me,_ not _you,_ I didn't say that outfit was perfect. You can try it on still, but not until we've looked through _all_ the displays, _all_ the shelves, and _all_ the racks in search of something comparable or better."

Ruby let out a whine, playing the part of a sad puppy as her knees buckled together in defeat. "But Weeeiiiiiss," she began, but was abruptly stopped by the girl in question's finger appearing in front of her lips.

"No buts. I just spent hours—"

"Minutes—"

"In that barbaric store of yours, forced to pay for—"

"You made a deal and used me—"

" _Your_ items—"

"They were overpriced—"

"That you couldn't afford—"

"Neither could you—"

"And so I expect you to humour me as we spend at least twice as much time celebrating _my_ success…"

Weiss paused, waiting for another of the insufferable reaper's interruptions, but continued when Ruby remained silent.

".. In this store."

Daphne giggled from across the shop, much to the chagrin of the heiress, before covering her mirth with one hand and turning away, hiding her expression. Impressively, she continued to fold with only one hand.

"Besides," Weiss leaned in close to her partner, speaking with a hushed tone, "I want to thank you for your… services."

Ruby leaned away, giving the Schnee a peculiar look as she processed the words. When she replied, it was with a speed reflective of her comprehension. "You mean… my… help?"

"Yes, that." Weiss sighed, trying to maintain eye contact. "So please, you don't have to be pleasant, but at least act bearable while we look for outfits."

"Aww, that's sweet! But you don't have to do that for me, Weiss. I already have clothes."

The fencer deadpanned, staring at her friend.

"Ruby, you have two combat outfits and a school uniform. You do laundry twice a week."

"Ehehe…" the redhead scratched at her shoulder, caught. "You noticed, huh?"

"Most of our budget is dedicated to detergent," Weiss deadpan continued, one hand coming up to rub her index finger and thumb together, signalling money. "Buying you these clothes will save me a few lien in the long run. Besides, fashion is important! If you present yourself in the same outfits to someone, they'll believe you're either poor or have bad taste."

"But both of those are true! Yang picked out what I'm wearing right now!"

"That's not the _point."_ Weiss hissed, "you're creating the illusion to impress them. Besides, you picked out a passable outfit already."

Ruby poked her fingers together, looking away. Her mumbling was almost inaudible. "I uh… might have just chosen the first thing I looked at…"

 _Ruby Rose, your luck and stupidity both amaze and disturb me._ The heiress mused internally, meaning no harm. She huffed and stood up to full height in order to hide her smile, meanwhile distracting Ruby with the typical theatrics she used to display her irritation.

"Then I guess I'll just have to find something for you. Something worthy of standing beside the heiress of the Schnee Dust Company."

Her partner snorted behind her, and the store clerk's eyes lit up at the title, while Weiss strolled away with all the confidence in the world, immediately going about tearing apart every stand of clothes in search for the perfect outfits.

And so they hunted, sifting through outfit after outfit, mixing together pants and tops from across the store in the hunt for something decent. Time and time again, Ruby brought clothes to the heiress' attention, just to have the idea rejected and Weiss' attention returned to her own racks or shelves. The younger girl hadn't been lying, her fashion sense truly was atrocious.

There was even one case where the dress and pant combination made Weiss choke on-sight. After that, and the impish grin her partner had given her, the Schnee was starting to believe the clothes she chose were _planned,_ especially when that look on her face remained throughout the following hour and a half.

With a delicate hand, Weiss picked a final top for her pile of clothes, completing yet another outfit for her teammate to try on. She turned to look for the clerk, finding the blonde to be shamelessly staring at her, leaning over the counter with one hand under her chin for support.

"Ready for the dressing room, Miss Schnee?" She called out before Weiss could, doubly catching the girl off guard. She smirked— _smirked—_ at Weiss' fluster as the Atlesian's mouth opened and closed, no sound emanating.

"Yes," Weiss composed herself, back straightening out of habit alone. "If you could help us... Daffodil, was it?"

The clerk kept her easy smile, eyes still looking relaxed as she flowed out from the checkout area and smoothly strut toward her target. "Please, Daphne is fine."

"Daphne, then." The Schnee was prepared this time, not falling for the sales representative's tactics. Sure, her clearly forward actions must have worked on other customers, especially those of the male variety, but to expect the same results out of someone trained from birth not to be fooled by power moves and slick business executives?

She was just out of practice at first.

"If you could take this pile," Weiss stated with a coating of cold veneer, "and prepare a separate room for Ruby, I'll be taking my own set to another." A red hood popped up in response from behind a mannequin, glassy, silver eyes holding a mix of fear and thinly veiled excitement at the prospect of trying on clothes, and what it signified for their shopping trip time.

Weiss only sighed, lifting the clothes meant for her partner and handing them to the other woman. "Here. Make sure _all_ of the clothes make it to her changing room. I don't want to have to hunt for them again if any go missing."

"If you need any help trying on the clothes—"

"One would hope none of your outfits have such difficult clasps or zippers to deal with."

"Yes, of course." If the blonde felt any disappointment at being cut off and brushed aside so bluntly, she was trained well enough to hide it. Instead she sauntered off to the hooded team leader, clothes draped over one arm, and began speaking politely to the other girl.

Weiss scoffed, carrying her own load to an empty room and beginning to strip down. She only found a couple of outfits in the moderately priced store which suited her tastes, so her time trying on clothes would be far shorter than Ruby's. Then the Schnee would be able to make sure the younger girl tried on _everything,_ and could keep her from going with the first set she tried on.

Zipping up a—thankfully easy—light top with a straight across cut, Weiss turned toward the mirror in the room. It transitioned into a darker blue wrap skirt, but with no patterns save for the gradient, nor any accent colours, the look felt rather bland. She held up a tight, red cardigan that cut off at her midriff, transitioning to gold specks toward the cuffs and bottom, while her other hand held a leather jacket of the same length, dyed navy. She immediately thought of Blake's white coat, but brushed it off just as quickly.

 _Mm, it's not my_ usual _style, but..._ the Schnee smiled at herself in the mirror, turning one way then the other. She turned the knob to her room and walked out just in time to see a black skirt with red frills drop behind the door across from her.

"Ruby, can I get your opinion on this outfit?"

"W-Weiss!? I'm ah—I'm kinda busy right now!" Ruby's muffled voice echoed in her room before bouncing out. Weiss held back a chuckle, feeling playful. It was rare she had a chance to tease her partner, or anyone for that matter. Vacuo would freeze over before the heiress gave up this golden opportunity.

"You can crack open the door and look, dolt."

"But, I mean," the reaper tried responding, toes twitching, "j-just a quick look?"

"Yes, now hurry up." Weiss stood straighter, puffing out her chest slightly to get the full effect of her top and jacket combo. Again, Yang flashed across her mind, but before the fencer could pull back her bust, a silver eye peeked out from a sliver of an opening beside her.

"Oh wow, Weiss! That looks great!" The door opened more, revealing the pale face belonging to the silver orb. Ruby's feet were still in view though, revealing just how far to the side she was standing, and thus how much she had to be leaning to look through.

"Really? You don't think it's too…" Weiss reached for a word to subtly describe the buxom blonde without being obvious. "Too casual for me? I'm not sure I'd have an occasion to wear this."

"You look like you're ready to go to a club with my sister," the red-headed girl hit the nail on the head, managing to be both completely aware and completely oblivious to her partner's thoughts. "I think she's going next week? If she doesn't drag Blake out, you could go with her!"

Weiss harrumphed, turning away. "A club is hardly entertainment for an heiress."

The door clicked behind her as Ruby returned to changing, speech echoing once again. "Well I still think it looks cute."

Another door clicked shut, as Weiss returned to her room and began stripping. She set aside the clothes and started putting on a new outfit, but when she spotted her face in the mirror she froze.

There was an innocent smile plastered across her lips and the lightest dusting of red across her cheeks. She immediately scowled as her mind worked. _What is wrong with me today? Everyone seems to be getting under my skin._

With more aggression than necessary, the Atlesian tried on another dress, more her style, but was less happy with it. Not even the cute— _stylish_ —the _stylish_ ankle strap pumps could make her feel the same way as the previous set.

Weiss stepped out again, and was met with the sight of her friend's door opening too. It took a moment, as Ruby shamelessly looked up and down the white-haired girl's figure, for the young leader to remember her own shame. She was in an outfit which, honestly, didn't suit the innocent girl. A mini skirt and black stockings, platform heels, red bracelets, an asymmetric top revealing one milky shoulder that floated when she moved, even a choker with a miniature rose emblem as a latch at the front.

It wasn't the same design as Ruby's rose crest, but the fact that she'd managed to find something so similar in the accessories was genuinely shocking to Weiss. Still, it didn't help the overall clubbing clothes that, although looked decent on the mannequins, didn't work on her partner's small frame. It was a shot in the dark at best, but the Schnee still felt a little disappointed in her selection not working out.

"Well? How does it look?" The reaper asked shyly, no doubt having similar thoughts.

"It's not the worst…"

"It's not me."

Weiss sighed, "no I suppose it isn't. You aren't exactly old enough to use them anyway."

"I like your dress though. The belt's a nice touch."

"Really?" The heiress spun in place, letting the panelled skirt flare around her. When she finished her rotation, it was to find Ruby entranced by the fabric in motion. "I'm not so sure about it."

"It's cute!" Ruby's response was almost too quick, her head snapping back up as she smiled at her partner. "Not as cute as the last outfit, but cute."

"Are you going to tell me everything looks cute, Ruby?" Weiss eyed the younger girl wearily. She had said her fashion sense was terrible, so it wasn't unlikely that she didn't know good from bad, but surely the young leader had some kind of taste in clothes to judge by.

"Did you pick any ugly clothes?"

"What?" Weiss sputtered, taken aback. "No, of course not."

"Then everything is probably going to be cute."

 _Curse her innocent eyes,_ the heiress glared daggers at her friend, trying to find some sort of ulterior motive. It left her feeling a little guilty, suspecting one of the few people she could say she trusted at Beacon, but not enough to override her caution. Ruby wasn't typically so flattering. _Then again, Ruby and I don't usually go on shopping trips. Perhaps Yang would know better?_ "I'm going to get a second opinion on this outfit. I'm not sold on it just yet."

"You called?" A blonde cut of hair, followed by a head and dress shirt, almost instantaneously appeared from the entrance to the dressing room area as Daphne joined the conversation. "Oh, that looks amazing, Miss Schnee!"

"All right, that settles it. This outfit definitely doesn't work."

"Okay…? I'm gonna try on the next thing then." Ruby said as she shut the door behind her, the rustling of clothes following soon after. Daphne merely pouted, waiting for Weiss to make any requests, and Weiss herself followed Ruby's example of leaving the hallway in favour of her private room.

The two continued trying on outfits, Weiss quickly exhausting her selection after one more rotation, while Ruby went through outfit after outfit, appearing in front of the heiress in yet another of her selections and asking for an opinion. They weren't having muck luck, the young leader still looking for something that works, while Weiss had taken to reading news headlines on her scroll, the first dress, sweater, and jacket laying beside her.

"Okay, last one…" A voice called from the room in front of her, reminding the Atlesian where she was. She couldn't even remember what outfit remained, mind still stuck on one of the reports she'd read. Apparently a new deposit of violet dust was found, meaning the price would drop substantially on the rarer material.

The door opened, and Weiss looked up in time to have her breath catch in her throat. Her partner had her usual combat boots on, but had a much darker pair of black leggings on. A ruby, layered skirt hung behind her knees, but revealed much higher up the front until a small piece of fabric covered the tops of her thighs. Instead, the girl's modesty was protected by the flair of her short, light black duffle coat. The jacket was so tight that it hugged the curves of her hips, following the swell of her chest as glistening silver latches held the coat closed. The shoulders were sharp, sleeves holding less tightly to her arms as they reached for palms, and a vibrant scarf held around Ruby's neck, flowing over one shoulder as it hung behind her back. It was as Ruby lifted her arms toward the front of her coat to pose that Weiss realized the insides of the sleeve, and thus the jacket, were the same shade of red as the skirt and scarf.

It was also then that the heiress realized she'd been staring for a little too long, causing her partner to begin squirming beneath her steely gaze.

"W-well?"

Weiss remained silent, trying to describe to herself what she was looking at. She gulped, wetting her dry throat before finally attempting to speak. "That looks… incredible, Ruby."

"Really!?" The redhead jumped, clapping in excitement. "Yes! I knew my first choice was the best!"

The mannequin hadn't done the clothes justice. On the grey skin and tall body they looked decent at best, but on Ruby? The design was bringing out curves Weiss hadn't even realize her teammate had. Her hips were almost always hidden in her skirts—not to mention her pajama pants weren't very flattering.

"And, check this out!" Ruby practically shouted as she undid the silver clasps to her jacket, causing it to pop open and sit at her sides comfortably. It revealed that only the insides of the sleeves were red, the rest a similar black to its outside, but also showed the deep red, sleeveless, high neck sweater with vertical stripes sewn as the design. Her shoulders were visible as the coat slid an inch down her arms, but the shining piece that wrapped the whole look together was the pure silver cross reflecting the ceiling lights in every direction and the thin chain necklace which bound it to her ample bosom. Apparently the reaper was well on her way to inheriting after Yang, as her chest was surprisingly large when it wasn't hidden in her usual combat outfits. "I found this in the accessories section. What'da you think?

Weiss looked up again into Ruby's eyes, silver orbs shining just as brightly as the penchant around her neck. "I think we've found a winner."

"Thank dust! I didn't want to have to start looking again." The skirt and necklace swayed as the typically animated girl moved about, exaggerating her speech with flailing arms. "Can we leave now? I'm gonna die if I have to try anything else on…"

Though she looked deflated, it was clear to the heiress from the way Ruby's lips shook that she was feeling overjoyed with her new clothes. Thinking back, Weiss recalled the last time her partner had shown up in the shared dorm room with a new outfit on, clothes she'd gotten to go out to Vale and hunt for clues on Roman Torchwick and the White Fang.

It'd taken them a good while to calm her down enough to go over the plan.

 _You asked for this, Schnee. Careful what you wish for._

"Right then," Weiss sighed, unaware of how tense her shoulders had been, "go get changed so we can make our purchases and leave."

"Actually, I was thinking of walking out in these?" Ruby fiddled with the hem of her skirt, looking down at her feet. Weiss' only reaction was to reach forward and grab at a magnetic tag which had to be taken off at the counter. The reaper blushed, realization dawning on her. "R-Right, I'll be back in a sec!"

The heiress sighed—again—as she grabbed her things and moved over to the counter, ready to pay for her own outfit. "Daphne? I'm ready to be served, hello?" She looked around, not spotting the blonde anywhere. "Tsk. The one time I actually need her…"

 _There you are,_ Weiss noted mentally when she leaned over to glance around a coat rack. The clerk was with one of the other customers, Vale End being a store that drew in a lot of the local school students during lunch break and after classes ended. The light gnawing from within the Schnee's torso alerted her to the time and the amount of time they'd spent in the store, if the fact that the previously barren boutique was busy wasn't enough.

She watched as Daphne finished helping the other clientele, finally walking toward the checkout counter after what was, realistically, probably only a minute or two. "Find anything to your liking?" The other woman spoke as she slid around behind a register, ready to begin scanning items. Her eyes, however, remained glued to her customer.

And it was really starting to tick off Weiss. The constant ogling, the sly smirks, the way she always said 'Miss Schnee,' it felt like being back in Atlas, surrounded by suitors each attempting the same six pickup lines at every social gathering.

"Yes, as a matter of fact I did. If you could put these into a bag, that would be lovely." The fencer looked away, trying to keep from creating any small talk.

"I'm surprised, Miss Schnee," the blonde began, aiming for Weiss' attention. "With how good you looked in all the outfits you tried on, it's shocking that you're only purchasing this one."

"Our tastes differ."

"I don't believe that's quite right," Daphne said in a huskier whisper, leaning over the counter toward her customer's shoulder. It sent a shiver down the shorter girl's spine, followed by a feeling of disgust in the pit of her stomach. That the _harlequin_ had the audacity to make such advances, in an open, public space, no less. "You seem tense. I could help loosen you up, if you want. I've been told I give the most wonderful massages, something about 'magic fingers.'"

Weiss held up one hand, holding her credit card to pay with. "Not interested." She didn't dare dignify the clerk's tone with her full attention, instead remaining facing the dressing rooms, face lighting up at the sight of her partner exiting with her bundle of clothes.

"Weiss! Are you done paying already?" Ruby quietly shouted as she bound up to the desk, unceremoniously dumping the content of her arms onto the countertop. "I hope I didn't keep you too long."

"No, don't worry. _She_ kept me waiting too long, so I'm just finishing up now. You aren't planning on changing back into those after you pay, are you?"

"Umm, I was thinking about it, actually. I kinda really wanna show off my new clothes, break them in, you know?" The reaper's smile melted away into a confused pout, mind no doubt thinking through the question further. "Why? Is there somewhere we need to be? Oh my gosh, did you plan a fight against Torchwick, so I'm going to need my combat gear!?" She gasped, building up unexpected excitement.

"Er, no. I was just… hungry—yes, so I'd like to find a restaurant posthaste." Technically she wasn't lying, Weiss _was_ hungry. It just wasn't her top priority at the moment.

"Your card, miss?" Daphne asked the young leader, having finished ringing through her items. It seemed she'd placed the heiress' card back on the counter near her, alongside her bag of clothes.

"Oh! Right, money, sure!" Ruby spouted as she hunted through her many pouches, looking for her wallet. She found it eventually, reaching in and pulling out bills of lien."How much is it?"

The employee looked shocked, first at the idea that someone was going to pay with cash for something which came to no small amount, then again at the number of bills that were practically overflowing from the red and black girl. Weiss felt a small pleasure in seeing the otherwise composed woman's facade crack, but it didn't last long at all.

"That will be one hundred and seventy lien, please."

Ruby easily fished out the total amount in cards and handed them to the other woman, immediately grabbing the clothes and shooting off into the change rooms, rose petals left in her wake. Daphne was left holding the receipt out to the empty space she once occupied, but soon switched gears. "Should I leave this receipt with you then, Miss Schnee?"

"Yes," 'Miss Schnee' replied, letting out a long winded sigh, "I suppose that would be fine."

"And as for the massage?"

"Once again, not interested." There were too many people around. As much as Weiss wanted to turn and shout at the sales representative for her behaviour, her audacity, and her blatant, sexual advances, she represented the Schnee Dust Company. Anyone with a scroll, which today meant literally anyone, wouldn't think twice about besmirching her family name for the chance of a video going viral. ' _Weiss Schnee screams at a shopkeeper in Vale over alleged sexual offers.'_ It had a certain ring to it which screamed gossip magazines; or worse, news coverage.

"Well, at least take this with you," Daphne pushed a slip of paper across the counter, a number scrawled across it in beautiful, flowing handwriting. She winked, continuing, "in case you ever change your mind."

"Haven't I made myself clear? I don't—"

"Okay Weiss, I'm ready to go!" A shout echoed from the side of the room. The Schnee's hand flashed out and and grabbed the scroll number and immediately shoving it in her bag to hid it. The last thing she needed was Ruby pestering her about it.

"I guess that's your cue to leave. It's been a pleasure, Miss Schnee. Hopefully I'll hear from you soon enough." Daphne bowed with a smile, turning away to continue her work as another customer flagged her down. "Until next time."

Weiss ground her teeth together, not returning the pleasantries. She'd froze in anger, and remained as such until her partner moved to poke her while letting out a tentative "Weiss?"

"Let's go, Ruby." The heiress turned and stormed out of the building, not waiting for a response.

"Hey, wait up!" For someone with speed as her semblance, Weiss was amazed at how often she heard her young leader calling out for others to wait for her. As if she wasn't capable of blasting past them all in the blink of an eye at any given second.

* * *

The two walked in silence, Weiss still stewing in her thoughts and grumbling under her breath, while Ruby looked anywhere but toward her partner as she no doubt attempted to think of a way to start a conversation.

"So… I know this might sound a little weird, but..." Ruby began, apparently having thought of a topic finally. "Are you, by any chance, kinda, maybe, umm, gay?"

Or maybe she was looking for a quick and painless death.

Either way, she—rightfully—interpreted the heiress' silence as shock and anger toward herself, and so responded in the most cliché way imaginable. "It's totally fine if you are! I'm not judging you or anything! I had a couple friends back in Signal who weren't straight, and they were totally cool people. Yep, no problems here. I was just curious."

"Why do you ask?" Weiss spat through clenched teeth.

"No reason," her partner lied, trying to disarm the situation. "It's just that the person helping us in the store was acting really friendly to you, and she was staring at you when you weren't looking, and she handed you a slip of paper…"

The Schnee's head hung in defeat. "You saw that, huh?"

"I think it's great that you're gay! Now you don't have to hide it anymore, or something. I don't know if Yang or Blake will be comfortable still sharing a room with you, but I trust you enough not to mind!"

Those words were almost endearing, and in any other context Weiss would have been happy to hear Ruby trusted her. It just came at the most inopportune time.

"I'm not gay, Ruby."

"But… the paper? And the flirting?"

"Were advances toward me, left unrequited. I'm not sure what she was thinking, but the result was her crude attempt at courting me. It's not something worth mentioning, and I plan to throw this," Weiss opened her palm, revealing the slip of paper she'd yet to throw out, "into the next trash can we pass by. I was hoping I could avoid this topic as a whole."

"Umm… courting?" The young leader questioned, sounding unsure of herself as she tried the word on her tongue, boots clacking on concrete as the two continued moving down the streets in search of food. "You mean like fairy tale princesses?"

The fencer sighed, "as the heiress to the SDC, I have to ensure the lineage is continued, and that whatever decision I make in marriage, it results in a bettering of the company. Marriage is a once in a lifetime opportunity to create strong political bonds that are nearly impossible to break. I've… grown accustomed to men, and the occasional woman, vying for my attention with the end goal of bedding me. The store clerk was no different, most likely after my name if her actions after learning of it were anything to judge by. Dust, she probably knew who I was from the second I stepped through the door."

"Oh," was all Ruby could respond with. Weiss half-expected her to comment on how awful or unfair it was, how it 'sucked' or shouldn't be the way it was. But she didn't want her partner's pity, not after spending many nights frustrated or crying in her room after another incident with an indecent suitor. She'd long since come to terms with the reality of her situation, and accepted it with clenched fists and unwavering determination.

But her partner was surprisingly sensitive at times, learning during her first year at Beacon how to pick up on others' feelings and respond well. It didn't always work, and it seemed the redhead had a harder time with the heiress than anyone else, but this wasn't one of those times.

"I guess I never got, um, courted." Ruby drew the conversation away from her teammate, thankfully removing the focus. "Dad had a strict ' _no boys'_ policy, but I wasn't even approached. I mean, I got asked out a couple of times at Signal, but Yang kinda made an example of them…"

Weiss cringed, feeling sorry for the unlucky souls. They probably didn't deserve the explosive punches of the fiery blonde, especially if they were interested in someone like Ruby. She couldn't imagine the younger girl catching the attention of the jocks or the bad boys, so they were probably innocent friends who had begun to felt something more after spending enough time with her.

"Apparently they deserved it, though." Or not. "Yang said something about them trying to use me to get closer to her? Or maybe she said they were trying to use me against her?"

Somehow, that was completely believable. It was almost shocking how quickly the Schnee had accepted the explanation, but it was just so _Yang._ So _Ruby._ Of course it was those two that ended up with that kind of trouble, and resulted in the student body of Signal being too scared to approach the reaper after.

"Weiss? Are you okay?" Ruby asked, concern written across her face. It was a reasonable question, since Weiss was bent forward, one hand covering her mouth. She was smiling, shoulders shaking as she tried, and failed, to hold back a giggle. The more she thought about Yang punching some guy's lights out as he leaned against a locker talking to her sister, the harder it was for her to control herself.

She broke, letting out full, vibrant laughter as tears pricked at her eyes. It shouldn't have been so funny, but she couldn't help imagine how comical the scene would be. The whole ordeal was probably followed up with some terrible pun, Ruby left whining about how the older girl was beating up all the nice guys that just wanted to show her a good time.

A couple passersby gave the pair some odd looks, but Weiss kept on laughing. When she eventually got herself back under control, wiping the tears off her cheeks, it was to find her partner grinning ear to ear at her. Though she didn't look like she fully understood what was so funny.

"Thanks, Ruby. I really needed that."

"You're welcome, I think?" The huntress in training responded. Her stomach growled in the newfound silence, causing her cheeks to flush. "Can we stop walking and eat now? That place across the street looks good."

It smelled good too, but when the Atlesian followed her friend's raised arm, it was to find her finger was pointing directly at a single table.

A table with a certain raven-haired faunus sitting at it, holding a menu up suspiciously high. It was almost as if she didn't want to be seen.

"Is that… Blake?" Ruby questioned, head tilting as she realized who she'd accidentally pointed at. "What's she doing here?"

"My thoughts exactly." Weiss eyed her teammate suspiciously. She looked both ways, then crossed the street, making a beeline to the restaurant. Her partner followed quickly after, equally curious. As they approached, their target seemed to retreat deeper behind her menu until they were upon her.

The heiress pulled out a chair, crossing her legs as she sat down. It would have been easy to immediately interrogate the girl in question, to accuse her of doing something she hadn't, but Blake hadn't given a reason to doubt her since her stunts in the previous year. That didn't mean Weiss wasn't weary, just that she had to handle the situation with tact and grace.

"Hey Blake," she spoke with a sickly sweet voice, causing the black bow atop the accused's head to twitch, "what a surprise, running into you here."

"Yeah," Ruby chipped in uselessly. Blake's only reaction was to quirk one brow up, manicured fingernails pulling her menu down a fraction, before turning her attention pointedly away from Weiss.

"What happened to your hood?"

"Oh," the young leader started, "me and Weiss went to that store down the road with the pink hat mannequins in the windows—the one beside the shoe store—and we got new outfits! Weiss' one is like, a normal girl's clothes, and mine has this cool coat and scarf, but my cloak doesn't really fit over it, so I tucked it in the bag with my other clothes."

"Well I think you look good in it." The faunus smiled, setting her menu down and crossing her hands over it, one finger tapping a quiet beat.

"Hehe, yeah, I think Weiss thought so too. Honestly though? I feel kinda naked without my cloak…"

"Oh she did, did she?" Blake looked toward the heiress, eyes glinting.

"Yes, I did. She couldn't go wearing her combat outfit and school uniform everywhere, and one other set of clothes is hardly enough. If I'm to have her as a partner, she can at least _dress_ well enough to be seen with me."

Weiss' teammates' faces both fell, Blake looking disappointed while Ruby's flashed through a lightning-fast jumble of surprised, angry, hurt, and finally happy again. "I'm not that bad," she laughed—forced—as a waitress wandered past their table, "am I?"

 _And to think things were going well,_ the Schnee mentally scolded herself, realizing the slip of her forked tongue. _What happened to figuring out Blake?_ She was still guarded, still shifting her glance toward the ex-terrorist at the table trying to discern the other's motives. "No, not at all, Ruby. You could be worse." _Oh no…_

"Worse?" And that was the end of fake-happy Ruby. She wasn't good at lying, anyway, her nature far too honest to hide how she felt. Instead her face fell into a frown. "What have I done this time? I've only helped you this semester."

"I—" the heiress paused, throat dry. _Don't show weakness, you're a Schnee. What will the magazines think? What will that clerk think? What of the questions, the parts store owner, the faunus—_ Weiss bit her tongue, tasting iron before her aura flared up, healing the small cut she caused. Those thoughts, they were old ones, a haunting ideology. She'd made progress, been kinder, more open, but was a single trip to Vale all it took to put her right back into her previous mindset?

"I'm sorry, Ruby," Weiss pushed out with shut eyes, "I didn't mean to…"

When she opened her eyes again, it was to find her partner's grey orbs looking back, a warm sympathy hidden within them. Or maybe it was the way she said "it's okay" that flooded the Atlesian with relief. She'd anticipated anger again, or an awkwardness between them, but something about the way Ruby was watching her made Weiss feel as though her teammate understood.

And although it shouldn't have, that frightened her more.

With a deep breath, she turned to Blake once again. It was her friend that she saw, not a terrorist, as the faunus seemed to note the interaction and once again seemed at ease. The girl had more than proved herself trustworthy over the course of their first year at Beacon; she didn't deserve the mental accusations nor the suspicions over pure coincidence. "So what are you doing in Vale, Blake?"

"I was spying on you two." The cat had the audacity to _giggle_ when Weiss gave her the most incredulous, open-mouthed stare. "And I got my nails done as a cover story. If Yang asks, you figured it out yourselves. She wanted me to keep an eye on you to… make sure you didn't get into any trouble."

"What do you mean trouble?" Ruby chimed in, expression just as shocked, though apparently she wasn't paralyzed like the Schnee was.

"Probably just her being a big sister. She was worried you'd manage to get into some sort of situation, and, these are her words, not mine, 'Weiss-cream would probably make it worse by calling special forces in.'"

"I would not!" Weiss squawked, feeling offended. Blake merely shrugged in response.

"So then why are you telling us all this?" Ruby, once again, jumped in to progress the conversation before it divulged into worse territory.

"Let's just say we don't see eye to eye on this. This way though, I get a manicure, Yang owes me a favour, and I don't have to keep hiding from you two while you play dress up and you get to chew her out for me."

Weiss groaned, letting her head fall forward as one hand smacked against the table in front of her. _Am I supposed to be cautious of her or not!?_

The server finally came and took orders, the conversation flipping to the Schnee's heroics in the face of sexism at the parts store, then onto her plans with the new parts she got as they received their meals. The comfortable silence which followed signalled the quality of the food while they ate, and by the time they'd all finished, an hour had slipped by.

"I think Ruby and I are going to head back to Beacon now. Would you like to join us?" Weiss invited her teammate, standing and stretching her legs as she tossed a couple cards of lien on the table to help cover the bill.

"No thanks," Blake smiled at her—she'd been doing that a lot more lately—before continuing. "There's still a couple things I need to do while I'm here. I didn't have time to do my own errands while I was watching you two."

"Okay, don't stay out too late!" their leader waved to their friend as she and Weiss walked away from the table, back onto the sidewalk to continue to the bullhead station.

"Don't forget to yell at Yang for me!" Blake shouted back, turning and leaving in the opposite direction to finish her day out.

The walk was silent, save for the tune Ruby hummed, a spring in her step. They reached the launchpads without issue, the concrete and brick of the city blending into one long blur between the restaurant and the station as the two girls swung their bags back and forth. With a flash of their student IDs, the two were let onto a waiting ship before it took off and began its route to Beacon.

They sat in the open doorway as the city flew by beneath their feet, the bullhead unusually empty save for Ruby, Weiss, and the two pilots in the cockpit.

By then, the lack of conversation felt stifling instead of comfortable. The heiress wasn't sure why her partner wasn't saying anything, the girl normally being impossible to keep quiet, but her own stomach felt as though it was weighed down. It slowly got worse along the walk until Weiss swore her posture was visibly affected, but it wasn't until she repeated her personal mantra that she figured out what was bothering her.

 _Be the best teammate, Schnee._

"Ruby…"

"Hmm?" The girl in question stopped humming, but she didn't turn to look at her partner, instead continuing to watch as colours flew by outside

"I'm…" Weiss breathed, then spoke again. "Sorry. I didn't mean to attack you earlier. You're a good teammate, a great leader, and an excellent partner..."

The younger girl still didn't look at her. "Mhm?"

The heiress sighed, her stomach not feeling any lighter. "When you're in a position of power, you can't trust others to have your best intentions in mind. You have to be strong, immovable, to maintain the impression that you won't be swayed easily in business." Too many businessmen in had tried to push her around, too many suitors chasing her skirt, all for the prestige of conquering a Schnee. "It's hard to forget that I don't have to…"

"It's okay."

"But I'm trying, I really am trying to be the best teamma—"

"I know, Weiss. It's okay."

She hadn't even realized, but she had tears waiting—not free, but tingling nonetheless—when Ruby cut her off. Her partner glanced her way, eyes holding that same smoldering sympathy from the restaurant.

"I get it. It hurt, but I know why you get prickly. You're still the best teammate."

Weiss sniffed, wiping at her face and looking out into the world around them. She wasn't going to cry, it wasn't necessary. The grin that broke out across her face was telling enough as it was. "Thank you."

"No, thank you for staying in the engineering course with me," the reaper replied, joining the Schnee in looking out at the passing scenery, wind whipping around them. "I know it isn't easy for you, but look at what you've accomplished! And today was fun, but you're going to have to keep doing well if you want to earn the right to drag me into another clothing store."

The fencer reminisced on her final question on the test from the day before, the genuine passion she felt writing her thoughts down on dust in forging, before responding. "Maybe it isn't all bad anymore. Clearly I'm doing something right to be passing. You're going to have to get used to the clothing trips, it seems."

Ruby groaned, but it was playful as she scooted over, bumping shoulders with Weiss. "Please noooo, there's so much else to do in the city—like bowling! Ohhh, let's go bowling next time!"

"That childish game?" the heiress reared her head back, sneering down at her young leader. Ruby looked genuinely shocked, that is, until her lips curled up in time with Weiss'. Both girls broke into laughter, and the remainder of the bullhead ride was peaceful, with no more unease filling the Schnee's gut.

 _The best teammate..._

* * *

 **Goodness me, reader! I'm glad you made it this far, and I thank you for it. I've never written a chapter this long before in any of my creative endeavours, and getting through it felt like a boxing match I couldn't win. Even now, as I write this note, I feel as though I'm nowhere near completing it. I'm a very slow writer, but I needed these events to occur, and I didn't want to add chapters to my outline to make them work, nor did I want to separate the events into multiple chapters, so here they are…**

 **Since I've never written something so long, I honestly have no idea if I've done a half-decent job with it. Though I like the components individually, I don't know how well the whole piece flows, nor do I know if it is interesting or engaging. Cold Smithing is, at the end of the day, an experiment in writing where I attempt to craft different experiences, so please, I would absolutely love to hear your feedback. What worked? What didn't? Are you willing to discuss it in detail? I'd love to dig out the 'why' behind your experience and figure out ways to improve. You're my measuring stick for how I'm doing, reader.**

 **Also, I'll let you in on a little secret: I don't have a clue what I'm talking about half the time. I mostly flew by the seat of my pants when writing about the components and their operations in the weapon parts store. I'm a software engineer, not a mechanical one. I'm also not well trained in the act of flirting, women's fashion, or hardware stores, actually. Between my brother and I, I'm the more handy one, but I seem to be useless whenever we need to find a screw or part to fix something in the apartment.**

 **Moving on, I've come to the conclusion that I can't judge my own work's quality properly. I re-read all of Cold Smithing so far, and realized I made some rather jarring jumps between emotions in the beginning. For this reason, I've decided to ask that someone else replace my tired eyes as a beta reader. If you're interested, dear reader, then you can find information about Beta role availability on my account profile.**

 **Enjoy the next chapter!**

 ** _Notes:_**

 ** _30/03/2017 - Fixed a typo, and made it more clear she doesn't cry at the end of the chapter. That would be too out of character for her in this moment. I also have added a note to the top of the first chapter, which is important enough to also mention here._**


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